TRAVELER 
TALES 

OF 
CHINA 


- 


HEZEKIAH 


BUTTERWORTH 


\     (bines?    Wedding    Ceremony. 

\  native  wedding  took  place  -luring 
my    "lay    at    Koo    Chow,    and    I    found 
th'it     wedding     feasts     are    wonderful 
affairs,  and  that  a  maximum  ot   noise 
sential    toward   giving   the   newly 
wedded    pair    a    happy    start    in    lite, 
three    whole    days    our    ears 
sailed  with  the  continual  beat- 
in-    of    drums,    banging    of    tin     ' 
and   popping  of  firecrackers,   the   poor 
little    bride    during    this     time    being 
frequently   paraded   up  and   down   "on 
Ultimately    the    affair    ended 
in    a    fight    among    some    coolies,    and 
siily    M'.mmone.i     by    a    very 
worrted-Iooklng  quests     to     repair    .lam- 
ing   up    some    bandages, 
•her    with    the      invaluable      pink 
Hnt.    1    hastened    to    the   scene    of   hos- 
jjlitj,  rover     my      prospective 

patient   kneeling    on   the    ground,   cov- 
svith    blood.    -u:d    with    Uie    ruin.s 
••  festooTied  around   his   • 

t rated      rather 
to  the  head  ai 

soon 

.    and    the 

off    to     a 

wound    *«s\\ea    up. 


: 


M    HIM.   (  H\\<;. 


3£tmcatt0nal  Erabel  Scries 

OR,    TRAVELLERS'    TALES    OF  NEW  LANDS 


TRAVELLER  TALES  OF 
CHINA 


OR 

THE  STORY-TELLING  HONGS 


BY 

HEZEKIAH    BUTTERWORTH 


Illustrated  by  more  than 
sixty  engravings 


BOSTON 
DANA    ESTES    &    COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright, 
BY  DANA  ESTES  &  COMPANY 

All  rights  reserved 


TRAVELLER  TALES   OF  CHINA 


Colonial  \3rtse 

Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  C    H.  Slmonds  &  Co. 
Boston,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 


IN  this  volume  I  have  aimed,  after  the  manner  of  the  "  Zig- 
zag Stories,"  to  give  a  view  of  the  social  life  of  Russian  China 
and  China ;  to  make  an  instructive  book,  which  should  picture 
the  new  way  around  the  world  by  the  Siberian  railway,  and  the 
new  ports  of  the  East  in  Manchuria  and  on  the  Yellow  Sea. 
This  is  the  second  volume  of  the  new  series  of  "Traveller 
Tales,"  written  after  the  manner  of  the  "Zigzag"  series, 
which  sought  to  illustrate  the  manners  and  customs  of  nations 
by  folk-lore  tales  and  travellers'  narratives,  in  a  progressive 
manner. 

Many  of  the  interpolated  stories  in  this  volume  are  "  Jataka  " 
legends,  which  means  that  they  were  parables  imputed  to  Bud- 
dha, but  which  were  written  to  make  clear  his  teachings  a 
century  or  more  after  his  death.  These  tales  are  the  folk-lore 
of  Buddhism,  and  are  well  known  in  Buddhist  countries,  and 
illustrate  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  people  of  the  past 
and  present. 

The  book  seeks  to  make  clear  to  young  people  the  new 
conditions,  as  well  as  the  old  traditions,  of  the  Chinese  people. 
China  is  the  waking  giant  of  the  world,  and  the  Trans-Siberian 
railway  and  ports  of  Manchuria  seem  likely  to  be  associated 

2039069 


vi  PREFACE 

in  the  near  future  with  important  and  progressive  commercial 
events. 

I  am  indebted  to  Harper  Brothers  for  permission  to  use  a 
story  which  appeared  in  the  Magazine,  arid  one  which  was  pub- 
lished in  a  holiday  number  of  the  Weekly,  both  stories  being 
furnished  to  them  as  original  contributions. 

I  have  followed  many  suggestions  in  the  text  of  Le  Tour  du 
Monde  to  secure  the  use  of  the  fine  illustrations.  Being  an 
enthusiastic  advocate  of  Froebel  primary  schools,  I  have  pic- 
tured the  beginning  of  kindergarten  schools  in  China,  which 
work  I  hold  to  be  a  prophecy  of  the  education  which  is  likely 
to  find  a  large  place  in  developing  the  new  thought  of  the 
empire. 

H.  B. 


CONTENTS 


I.     STRANGE    THINGS   TO  BE   SEEN    IN   CHINA  —  JATAKA 

TALES  —  THE  BOXERS  —  AMERICAN  TEA -FARMS     .       11 
If.     THE   NEW  WAY   AROUND  THE   WORLD  BY  RUSSIA  — 

A  JATAKA  TALE  —  CONFUCIUS  .         .         .         .45 

III.  GHOST  THANKS — A  STORY  OF  GINSENG      ...       58 

IV.  THE  SILENT  MYSTERY  OF  THE  FUNG  SHUI  —  AXCES- 

TOR  WORSHIP      ........       84 

V.     CHINA,  THE  WONDERFUL .93 

VI.     TAE-PIXG  -  WANG,   WHO    THOUGHT    HIMSELF   A   MES- 
SIAH—  A  JATAKA  STORY  ......     102 

VII.     SECRET  COREA  —  THE  HERMIT  XATION  —  How  THEY 

TRAVEL  THERE  ........     110 

VIII.     MANCHURIA,  THE  PROVINCE  OF  DESTINY  —  GINSENG, 
THE    WONDERFUL   HERB   THAT    HEALED    DISEASES 
AND  ARRESTED  DEATH       ......     115 

IX.     A  VERY  STRANGE  STORY       .         .         .         .         .         .117 

X.     OPIUM  AND  OPIUM  SMUGGLING 127 

XI.     THE  TRADE  CITIES 136 

XII.     THE  OPIUM  SMOKER 144 

XIII.     THE    SILKS   OF   ANTWERP  —  THE    TOWN    WHERE    THE 

INSANE  Go  FREE  —  THE  KINDERPLATZ    .         .         .     175 
.XIV.     THE  GREAT  ASIAN  TEA   FAIR  OF   NI.TXI -NOVGOROD     204 

XV.     A  DESERT  INN 214 

XVI.     THE  SIBERIAN  RAILROAD  —  THE  NEW  WAY  AROUND 

THE  WORLD         ........     223 

XVII.     THE  AMOOR  —  MANCHURIA,  THE  PROVINCE  OF  DESTINY     231 
XVIII.     THE  DEATH  LAMASARY,  OR  THE  HUMAN  GOD  AND  THE 

><  PRAYER-FLAGS  "  244 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIX.     THE  NEW  PARTS  OF  THE  WOULD         ....  250 

XX.     THE  CORKA  GINSENG .  254 

XXI.     THE  HOUSE  SPIRITS  OF  COREA     .....  257 

XXII.     THE  CAPITAL  OF  THE  CELESTIAL  EMPIRE  —  MYSTERIES  262 

XXIII.  THE  DOWAGER  —  A  QUEEN  "AN"  INDEED.         .         .  269 

XXIV.  THE  WONDERFUL  TREES  OF  CHINA      ....  276 
XXV.     THE  PEARL  RIVER  AND  CANTON  —  CHINESE  JUGGLERS 

—  CONFUCIUS      ........  290 

XXVI.    OPIUM  —  THE  MONSTER  COVERLET      ....  308 

XXVII.     THE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  FOOCHOW        ....  322 

XXVIII.     TONQUIN 329 

XXIX.     HOME  —  THE  MYSTERY  MADE  CLEAR          .         .         .  345 

XXX.     THE  INCREDIBILITY  OF  THE  BUDDHIST  LEGENDS        .  349 

XXXI.     A  NEW  PORT  OF  THE  WORLD  359 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

Li  HUNG  CHANG      .  Frontispiece 

CHINESK  CKMETERY          .........  1-5 

VIEW  ON  A  RIVER  NEAR  CANTON.         ......  17 

TIG  EH  ISLAND,  ENTRANCE  TO  THE  CANTON  RIVER       ...  21 

PROPITIATORY  OFFERINGS   FOR  DEPARTED  RELATIVES          .         .  29 

A  CHINESE  GUARDIAN  DEITY         .......  33 

THE  HORSE  GOD,  TEMPLE  NEAR  SHANGHAI          .         .         .         .37 

A  STREET  JUGGLING  PERFORMANCE       ....  .41 

A  PRISONER  WEARING  THE  CANGUE     ......  47 

GANG  OF  PRISONERS  WEARING  THE  CANGUE         ....  51 

PAGODA  AND  VILLAGE  ON  THE  CANAL  NEAR  CANTON          .         .  61 
COURT   IN   FRONT    OF    PRIVATE     RESIDENCE     OF     A     WEALTHY 

CHINAMAN          .                  ........  75 

TYPICAL  VIEW  ON  CANAL  OR  CREEK     .         .         .         .         .    ^  .  95 

SAMPANS  AND  JINRIKISHAS      .  .99 

THE  GREAT  WALL  OF  CHINA          .......  103 

A  TARTAR  OF  THE  CHINESE  ARMY        ......  107 

A  MANDARIN  PAYING  A  VISIT  OF  CEREMONY      ....  Ill 

BOUDOIR  AND   BEDCHAMBER   OF  A  LADY  OF  RANK       .         .         .  129 

APARTMENT  IN  A  MANDARIN'S  HOUSE,  NEAR  NANKING        .         .  137 

DYEING  AND  WINDING   SILK  IN  CHINA 145 

CHINESE  PUNISHMENT  OF  THE  RACK      .         .         .         .                   ,  151 

PUNISHMENT  OF  THE  BAMBOO 161 

AN  ITINERANT  DOCTOR  AT  TIEN-TSIN 171 

RICE  SELLERS   AT  A  CHINESE  MILITARY  STATION         .                  .  179 

KITE -FLYING  IN  CHINA  ON  THE  NINTH  DAY  OF  NINTH  MOON.  187 

CHINESE  COLOR  -  BEARER         ........  198 

FEEDING   SILKWORMS  AND  SORTING  THE  COCOONS  IN  CHINA       .  209 

STEAMER  ON  THE  AMOOR                                   .         .         .  224 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

HEAVY  SAILBOAT  ON  THE  AMOOR          .....  233 

A  CHINESE  FARM  ON  THE  AMOOR 241 

GHILIAKS  ...                  251 

A  DKVOTEE  CONSULTING  THE  STICKS  OF  FATB    ....  260 

GHILIAK  FISHING -BOATS         ........  270 

A  GHILIAK  FALI  DAY     .........  285 

GHILIAKS  SACRIFICING  THK  BKAR          ......  293 

WHEELBARROW  FOR  CARRYING  PASSENGERS          .                  .         .  301 

SHOW  -  ROOM  OF  A  LANTERN  MERCHANT 305 

EARTHEN  JAR  SHOP  AND  BLACKSMITH  SHOP,  SHANGHAI     .         .  309 

PLAYING  DAN    HO  .        .        .        .                 311 

ITINERANT   RESTAURANT .  313 

CAP   VENDER'S  SHOP,  CANTON .319 

DINNER-PARTY  AT  A  MANDARIN'S  HOUSE    .                  ...  323 

A  CHINESE  LADY  WITH  BOUND  FEET  ......  327 

A  WOMAN  OF  TONQUIN  .........  331 

WKLLINGTON  STREET,  HONG    KONG        ......  335 

TONQUIN  BARBER  TREATING  THE  EAR          .         .         .         .         .  339 

A  Doc -HOC 343 

CITY  HALL  AT  HONG    KONG   . 347 

AN  ITINERANT  BARBER 351 

MALEFACTORS  . 355 

HONG -KONG,  FROM  Kow    LOON •  357 


TEAVELLER  TALES  OF  CHINA 


CHAPTER   I. 

STRANGE   THINGS  TO  BE    SEEN    IN    CHINA  — JATAKA 
TALES— THE   BOXERS  —  AMERICAN    TEA -FARMS 

"  You  and  your  son  are  about  to  visit  China,"  said  a  Chinese 
agent  of  an  old  and  established  hong  in  Canton.  "  China  is  a 
ghost  land.  Let  me  tell  you  a  secret  of  Chinese  life ;  all  peo- 
ple there  think  they  see  spirits  —  the  spirits  of  their  ancestors. 
Now,  the  good  Chinese  see  bright  spirits.  Associate  with  such, 
and  avoid  those  who  talk  of  dark  spirits.  In  China  the  people 
worship  their  ancestors,  and  it  is  those  who  think  that  they  are 
visited  by  the  bright  spirits  of  good  ancestors  who  have  real 
worth." 

The  speaker  was  Ah  Hue,  or  Ah  Hue-Ling.  He  had  made 
a  reputation  for  honorable  dealing  as  an  agent  of  the  tea  trade. 
He  spoke  English  well,  and  was  something  of  a  philosopher.  He 
seemed  to  see  the  truth  of  life,  rather  than  to  reason  about  it. 

Mr.  Barnard  was  a  tea  merchant.  He  lived  near  Winthrop, 
Mass.,  on  one  of  the  hills  overlooking  the  Rumney  Marsh.  His 
family  had  long  conducted  a  tea  house  in  Boston,  and  he  had 
invited  Ah  Hue  to  visit  him  that  he  might  better  gain  informa- 
tion in  regard  to  the  trade  in  China.  His  son  Charles,  who  was 
finishing  his  education,  had  resolved  to  go  into  business  with  his 
father. 


12  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

To  better  prepare  his  son  for  the  business  of  the  importation 
of  tea  for  his  wholesale  house,  Mr.  Barnard  planned  to  take  his 
son  to  China  by  the  way  of  St.  Petersburg  and  the  Siberian  rail- 
way to  Manchuria,  and  the  new  Golden  Horn  of  the  far  East. 
Ah  Hue  was  to  go  with  them. 

Ah  Hue-Ling  had  become  the  charm  and  delight  of  the 
Barnard  family,  for  he  told  Chinese  tales  of  people  who  saw 
bright  ghosts,  and  were  happy.  Mrs.  Barnard  and  her  little 
daughter,  Lucy,  thought  these  folk-tales  of  the  Flowery  Kingdom 
almost  as  good  as  those  of  Germany. 

"  Xow,  Ah  Hue-Ling,  tell  us  a  wonder  tale,  and  take  Mr. 
Barnard  out  of  his  business  cares,"  Mrs.  Barnard  would  say. 

Ah  Hue  would  sit  down  on  the  edge  of  the  divan  and  lean 
over,  and  pussy,  perhaps,  would  play  with  his  pig-tail,  as  it 
hung  over  the  edge  of  the  divan. 

There  was  one  story  that  he  used  to  tell  that  all  liked  to 
hear,  although  it  was  rather  uncanny.  It  was  of  Sing  Ling, 
the  "  merchant  man." 


SING   LING,   WHO   SAW   SOMETHING   STRANGE 

"  AH,"  would  say  Ah  Hue-Ling,  "  Sing  Ling  was  a  crafty  one, 
and  a  wonder  happened  to  him,  and  it  was  all  in  this  way  : 

"  Sing  Ling  had  a  partner  in  business  named  Oi,  and  they 
were  journeying  from  Hong-kong  to  Canton  among  the  junks. 

"  They  had  done  a  good  business  on  the  island  of  Kong,  and 
the  partner  Oi  had  given  the  purse  that  contained  the  profits  of 
it  to  Sing  Ling  to  keep  until  they  should  arrive  at  Canton. 

"  How  bright  the  air  was !  How  the  sails  rose  and  shone  like 
walls !  How  the  flowers  bloomed  in  the  gardens !  How  the 
gables  and  dragons  of  the  summer-houses  glistened  in  the  dis- 
tance along  the  way ! 


SING   LING,    WHO   SAW  SOMETHING    STRANGE  15 

"  A  thought  came  to  Sing  Ling. 

"  It  was  a  wicked  one. 

"  He  had  the  purse. 

"  What  if  his  partner  Oi  were  to  be  drowned  among  the 
junks  ?  The  purse  would  be  his.  No  one  would  know. 

"  The  thought  became  a  suggestion,  and  the  wicked  vision 
grew,  and  became  a  desire. 

"Now  Oi  liked  to  stand  on -the  edge  of  the  stern  of  the  boat 
and  watch  the  junks.  He  did  so  on  this  excursion,  and  often 
on  a  plank  that  reached  out  beyond  the  rail. 

"  Sing  Ling  saw  that  he  would  only  have  to  tilt  the  rail,  and 
his  partner  would  fall  into  the  deep  water,  and  then  all  the  con- 
tents of  the  purse  would  be  his.  No  one  would  know  —  wicked 
Sing  Ling ! 

"  He  watched  his  opportunity  to  give  the  board  a  tilt,  — 

"  '  A  wicked  look  around  he  stole, 
And  many  a  think  he  thunk, 
And  many  a  wicked  smile  he  smole, 
And  many  a  wicked  wink  he  wuiik.' 

"  A  moment  came  when  no  one  seemed  to  be  looking.  Sing 
tilted  the  plank,  and  Oi  threw  up  his  hands  and  fell  into  the 
water.  Sing  Ling  did  not  look  after  him ;  he  shut  his  eyes, 
and  the  boat  passed  on,  and  presently  it  stopped  at  a  landing, 
and  there  was  a  great  confusion  in  the  people  rushing  away. 

k;  Sing  Ling  had  the  whole  purse  now.  Oi,  as  he  thought, 
was  gone  forever,  and  was  happy  with  his  ancestors. 

"  Ah,  no,  no !  That  night  Sing  had  the  purse  under  his 
couch,  and  just  as  he  was  going  to  sleep  with  a  burning  con- 
science, it  began  to  rattle,  rattle. 

"  Sing  leaped  up,  and  before  him  stood  Oi ;  his  partner  looked 
dreadful ;  a  bad  conscience  makes  fearful  ghosts. 

"  *  Carry  my  gold  to  my  mother,'  said  the  ghost. 


16  TRAVELLED    TALES   OF  CHINA 

"  The  next  night  the  same  thing  happened  again,  but  Oi  looked 
angrier  than  before. 

u  *  Carry  niy  gold  to  my  mother,'  said  Oi,  '  and  I  will  never 
come  again.' 

"'I  will,'  promised  Sing,  shaking. 

"  He  carried  the  gold  to  Oi's  mother,  and  told  her  that  Oi  had 
fallen  overboard.  He  was  happy,  for  he  thought  that  he  would 
never  be  arrested  for  the  crime,  and  no  one  but  himself  would 
ever  kno\y.  He  did  not  know  that  a  secret  knowledge  of  guilt 
makes  a  hypocrite  and  ruins  the  soul,  and  is  sure  to  be  revealed. 

"  But  after  a  little  he  saw  Oi  again.  It  was  on  the  street  in 
open  day.  He  ran  to  him. 

"  '  Oi,  Oi,'  said  he, '  you  promised  me  that  if  I  would  carry  the 
gold  to  your  mother  you  would  never  appear  to  me  again.' 

"  '  I  never  have  appeared  to  you  ;  1  am  Oi,  and  not  a  ghost.  I 
fell  overboard  —  why  did  you  not  rescue  me  ? ' 

"  Here  was  an  unexpected  witness  to  his  guilt.  Oi  had  not 
been  drowned,  and  the  ghost  that  Sing  had  seen  nights  had  been 
created  by  his  imagination  out  of  his  bad  conscience,  which  fur- 
nishes the  warp  and  woof  for  such  beings. 

u  Then  Sing  saw  that  Oi  saw  his  true  character,  for  all  life  is 
self-revealing,  and  he  fled  to  America  and  now  he  uses  a  pick- 
axe in  the  dark,  dark  mine.  We  see  ourselves  in  ghostland." 

He  would  add : 

"  I  never  would  tell  that  story  again  ;  don't  ask  me.  It  is 
bad  people  who  see  bad  ghosts,  and  it  is  bad  people  who  tell  bad 
stories.  Ask  me  only  to  tell  you  tales  of  bright  ancestors  who 
come  to  us  for  good.  '  Ghost  thanks,'  I  call  such,  spirits  of 
people  whom  we  once  helped,  and  who  come  to  us  to  help  us  out 
of  gratitude." 

His  story  illustrates  the  kind  of  superstition  that  fills  China, 
and  it  teaches  much  in  regard  to  the  dark  ghostland  of  Chinese 
fancy. 


SING   LING,    WHO    SAW  SOMETHING    STRANGE  19 

Mr.  Barnard  and  Charles  were  studying  this  journey  when  Ah 
Hue  made  the  quoted  remark  that  the  character  of  a  Chinaman 
might  be  found  by  the  kind  of  spirits  that  he  thought  he  saw. 
It  is  a  truth  of  life,  a  man  who  sees  good  in  others  is  usually  a 
good  man.  A  man  who  tells  his  friends  that  he  comes  from 
a  good  city,  or  neighbourhood,  or  town,  is  going  to  a  good 
neighbourhood,  or  city,  or  town.  A  man  sees  in  others  what  he 
is  himself. 

Mr.  Barnard  unrolled  a  new  map  of  China. 

"  Russian  China,"  said  he, "  is  to  be  a  province  of  great  influence 
in  the  future.  Destiny  is  there.  The  great  point  of  connection 
of  the  Eastern  and  the  Western  world  is  to  be  Manchuria." 

Charles  entered  the  room  and  caught  the  last  remark.  He 
had  been  studying  Russian  China,  and  saw  there  a  new  map  of 
the  world's  progress. 

"  The  Trans-Siberian  railroad,"  he  said  to  his  father,  "  must 
change  the  world's  travel.  Why,  father,  look  upon  the  new 
map.  Here  is  the  Siberian  railway ;  it  connects  with  the 
Amoor,  but  look  —  let  a  branch  of  that  railway  run  up  to 
Behring  Straits,  and  what  may  happen  ?  Those  straits  are  only 
a  ferriage  —  before  the  end  of  the  century  one  may  go  from 
America  to  Paris  by  land." 

"  They  may  do  that  in  twenty  years  or  perhaps  ten  from 
now,"  said  Ah  Hue. 

Mr.  Barnard  studied  the  map.  Charles  stood  by  his  chair. 
They  bent  their  eyes  on  the  line  of  the  Siberian  railroad  in 
silence. 

"  Will  we  follow  the  route  on  the  map  on  our  journey  ? " 
asked  Charles. 

The  route  on  the  map,  which  was  a  French  chart,  was  Eng- 
land, Paris,  Vienna,  to  St.  Petersburg,  hence  to  Moscow,  Nijni 
Novgorod,  Irkoask,  Shetinsk,  and  by  the  lakes  and  the  great 
river  Amoor  and  the  ocean  sea  to  Vladivostok,  Shanghai,  and  by 


20  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

rail  to  Pekin.  They  would  go  to  Canton  and  Hong-kong  from 
Pekin. 

Charles  had  an  intimate  companion,  Louis  Forbes,  who  was 
familiarly  called  "  Lou."  He  was  a  poor  boy,  but  had  character, 
clear  vision,  and  a  strong  purpose  in  life.  He  wished  to  be 
taken  into  the  tea  house  and  to  learn  the  trade. 

Mr.  Barnard  saw  the  making  of  a  true  merchant  in  him.  He 
had  been  thinking  of  asking  him  to  accompany  the  party  on  the 
Russian  China  journey?  He  believed  in  educational  travel,  in 
the  educational  travel  that  begins  a  business  career  rather  than 
ends  it. 

This  boy  Louis  Forbes  —  "  Lou  "  —  had  come  to  visit  Charles, 
and  he  entered  the  room  as  the  father  and  son  and  Ah  Hue  stood 
studying  the  French  map. 

"  The  great  struggle  of  the  civilizations  of  the  world  is  to  be 
between  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  and  the  Slav,"  said  Mr.  Bar- 
nard, "  and  the  power  will  dominate  that  best  obeys  the  spiritual 
laws  of  life.  The  world  is  destined  to  be  governed  by  the  high- 
est law ;  that  which  is  best  for  the  people  will  survive." 

"  China  is  a  waking  giant,"  said  Lou. 

"  And  Russian  China  is  to  change  the  map  of  the  world,"  said 
Charles,  "  and  Vladivostok  or  Port  Arthur  is  likely  to  be  its 
port,  or  one  of  its  ports,  unless  a  new  railroad  city  shall  connect 
the  Behring  Straits  with  Paris  and  the  English  Channel  and 
London." 

Mr.  Barnard  listened  to  the  two  boys  with  much  interest,  as 
they  studied  the  French  map  together. 

"  I  have  decided  to  go  to  Russian  China,"  said  he  to  Lou. 

"  I  wish  I  might  be  able  to  make  such  a  journey,"  said  Lou. 
"  What  an  advantage  it  would  give  me  in  the  tea  trade  !  I  will 
make  the  journey  if  I  am  prospered,  some  day,"  he  continued, 
"  after  I  have  earned  the  money  for  travel.  I  want  to  see  the 
new  East." 


SING  LING,   WHO   SAW  SOMETHING   STRANGE  23 

"  I  wish  you  might  go  with  us,"  said  Charles.  "  You  are  to 
enter  our  trading  house." 

"  You  shall  go,"  said  Mr.  Barnard.  "  I  shall  need  trained 
clerks  in  my  business,  and  if  you  will  accept  my  invitation,  I  will 
try  to  help  train  you  to  become  one  of  them." 

He  added  :  "  You  and  Charlie  have  studied  together ;  you  are 
both  to  enter  my  business  house  together,  and  I  would  have  you 
make  the  journey  to  Russian  China  together.  It  would  be  likely 
to  be  to  my  advantage  to  have  you  do  so. 

"  So,  Lou,  with  your  parents'  consent,  I  will  take  you  with  us, 
and  defray  all  of  your  expenses." 

"  I  thank  you  out  of  my  heart,"  said  Lou,  "  but  I  would  dis- 
like to  begin  life  by  being  dependent  on  the  friendship  of 
another.  True  friendship  accepts  no  gifts.  I  have  paid  for  my 
own  education,  and  I  have  not  had  a  dollar  for  it  that  I  have 
not  earned." 

"  It  is  that  spirit  in  you  that  makes  me  desire  the  more  to 
train  you  for  my  business.  I  do  not  want  men  who  are  willing 
to  be  dependent,  in  my  business.  Such  men  do  not  make  busi- 
ness grow.  You  would  go  with  us,  not  as  Charlie's  friend,  but 
as  a  future  worker  in  my  firm,  and  the  money  that  I  will  spend 
on  your  journey  will  be  well  invested  in  you  for  me. 

"  The  time  has  come  for  merchants  to  train  their  clerks  for 
intelligent  service  by  giving  them  educational  travel." 

It  was  soon  arranged  that  Lou  should  go  with  Charles  to 
Russian  China. 

Ah  Hue-Ling  was  a  bright  man  as  well  as  a  story-teller.  He 
not  only  knew  Chinese  folk-lore  well,  and  the  wonderful  tales  of 
the  Chinese  ghostland,  those  which  were  associated  with  ancestor 
worship,  but  he  also  told  Chinese  fables  and  quoted  Chinese 
proverbs,  and,  strangely  enough,  sought  tales  of  spiritual  powers 
wherever  he  went.  He  knew  the  Jataka  Buddhist  stories. 

He  had  been  brought  up  in  the  hongs,  where  he  had  studied 


24  TRAVELLER   TALES   OF  CHINA 

English.     He  had  read  Dickens  and  the  most  notable  English 
scientific  books. 

Charles  had  a  business  mind.  He  was  not  greatly  interested  in 
folk-lore,  but  Lou  was,  so  Lou  and  Ah  Hue  exchanged  stories. 

WONDER  TALES  OF  THE  BUDDHISTS  (THE  JATAKA 
STORIES),  THE  OLDEST  FOLK-LORE  STORIES 

THE  Talmud  contains  the  folk-lore  tales  of  the  Jews,  the  tales 
of  the  rabbis ;  the  "  Arabian  Nights  Entertainments  "  comprise 
many  of  the  folk-lore  tales  of  the  East,  Desert  Tales,  Caravan 
Tales,  legends  of  the  Caliphs.  The  legendary  tales  of  the 
Buddha,  or  folk-lore  of  Ind,  are  perhaps  the  oldest  of  all  of  this 
class  of  stories.  These  were  more  than  five  hundred  in  number, 
and  according  to  the  tradition  they  were  suggested  by  Buddha 
himself. 

This  last  claim  would  be  impossible,  but  they  were  suggested 
by  the  early  Buddhist  mind.  Many  of  them,  like  those  of  the 
Talmud,  are  very  interesting  parables  of  life. 

The  great  collection  of  Buddhist  folk-lore  stories  is  called 
«  The  Jataka  Book." 

Let  us  give  you  a  specimen  of  one  of  these  Jataka  Tales, 
most  of  which  relate  to  rebirth,  or  reincarnation,  as  all  people 
in  these  countries  are  believed  to  be  born  again,  either  as 
animals,  a  higher  order  of  men,  or  of  celestial  beings. 

THE    LION    THAT    BRAYED 

ONCE  upon  a  time  when  Brahma-datta  was  monarch  of 
Benares,  a  Buddha  was  born  of  humble  parents.  He  worked  in 
the  fields. 

It  was  in  the  days  of  the  hawkers  or  the  travelling  peddlers : 
these  journeyed  from  place  to  place  carrying  their  goods  on 
donkeys. 


WONDER    TALES    OF  THE   BUDDHISTS  27 

Now  there  was  a  certain  hawker  who  was  very  greedy  and 
covetous,  and  sought  to  accumulate  money  in  every  way,  without 
regard  to  justice  or  honor. 

He  liked  to  feed  his  donkey  in  fields  of  green  barley ;  it  made 
the  animal  sleek  and  nimble  to  feed  in  barley  fields. 

The  greedy  hawker  so  pastured  his  donkey  by  a  stratagem. 
When  he  came  to  a  village  he  took  the  little  animal  into  a 
stable  and  bound  over  him  a  lion's  skin,  and  turned  him  into 
the  nearest  field  of  barley. 

When  the  watchman  of  the  town  saw  the  animal  in  the  field, 
he  cried  out : 

"  A  lion  !  a  lion  !  " 

None  dared  to  molest  him.  The  lion  was  a  sacred  beast  and 
the  monarch  of  all  beasts ;  so  the  donkey  would  have  his  fill  in 
the  dewy  nights,  and  start  on  his  way  refreshed  and  fattened 
in  the  morning. 

One  day  the  crafty  hawker  stopped  at  a  certain  town,  and 
dressed  the  donkey  in  the  lion's  skin,  and  turned  him  loose  in  a 
barley  field. 

"  A  lion  !  "  exclaimed  the  keepers  of  the  town.  "  A  lion  in 
the  barley  ! " 

"  A  lion  !  a  lion  !  "  exclaimed  the  people. 

They  were  bold  people,  and  notwithstanding  the  lion  was  a 
sacred  beast,  they  resolved  to  scare  him  away. 

The  future  Buddha,  being  then  a  tiller  of  the  fields,  advised 
this  course.  He  was  a  wise  man  then. 

The  people  assembled  with  all  kinds  of  instruments  that 
would  make  a  noise  or  clatter.  They  went  forth  to  the  barley 
field,  shouting,  ringing  bells,  and  blowing  horns. 

The  supposed  lion  gazed  upon  them  with  a  look  of  great 
surprise. 

Then  all  the  people  shouted  and  sounded  their  gongs,  and 
blew  their  horns. 


28  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

They  advanced  and  shouted  again.  The  mock  lion  began  to 
tremble  and  bow  his  head. 

Then  they  shouted  again  and  made  such  a  clatter  that  the 
donkey  gave  a  deep  and  earth-penetrating  bray. 

The  people  were  very  much  astonished  to  hear  a  lion  bray. 

"  He  is  only  an  ass,"  said  the  future  Buddha.  "  This  is  not  a 
lion  roaring,  nor  a  tiger,  nor  a  panther,  'tis  a  foolish  ass  that 
brays." 

The  people  then  attacked  the  poor  animal  who  had  thus 
betrayed  himself.  They  beat  him,  and  broke  his  bones  and 
carried  off  ftie  lion's  skin. 

The  hawker  stole  out  to  see  how  the  donkey  had  fared.  He 
found  the  innocent  animal  dying,  and  said  : 

u  Long  might  the  ass  in  a  lion's  skin  have  fed  on  the  barley 
green,  but  he  brayed." 

The  poor  donkey  heard  the  "  poem,"  and  died  at  the  sound  of 
his  own  epitaph. 

An  ass  in  a  lion's  skin  is  sure  to  bray. 

Such  were  the  tales  that  Ah  Hue  began  to  relate  before  the 
journey  began,  and  evening  by  evening  before  the  journey  and 
during  the  travelling  he  was  asked  to  relate  some  new  Jataka 
tale. 

Some  of  the  stories  were  associated  with  strange  images  to  be 
found  in  the  decaying  temples.  These  pictured  history. 


WHAT   IS   THE   MATTER   WITH   CHINA  ?  — THE 
BOXERS 

AH  HUE  had  been  a  doctor.  He  wore  spectacles  with  great 
rims,  and  when  he  put  his  spectacles  on,  and  with  it  a  doctor's 
face,  he  looked  very  wise.  The  tea  merchants  and  their  families 
had  a  Travellers'  Club,  which  studied  the  trades  of  China. 


WHAT  IS    THE  MATTER    WITH   CHINA?  31 

Of  all  the  members  of  this  "  Travellers'  Study  Club  of  China," 
Lucy  was  one  of  the  brightest,  and  seemed  to  absorb  the  most. 
When  the  club  had  had  its  session,  she  would  go  to  Doctor  Ah 
Hue  to  ask  if  what  the  club  had  been  studying  were  true. 

"  Let  me  put  on  my  spectacles,"  he  would  say,  "  and  we  will 
talk  over  the  matters." 

"  You  know  about  these  things,"  said  Lucy.  "  They  guess  ;  I 
believe  what  you  say." 

Doctor  Ah  Hue  felt  greatly  complimented  by  Lucy's  confi- 
dence in  him.  When  she  expressed  this  confidence,  he  would 
rise  up  in  his  silk  robes,  take  down  his  great-bowed  spectacles 
from  his  face,  and  bow  —  he  seemed  to  bow  to  the  four  corners 
of  the  earth. 

"  Ah  Hue,"  said  Lucy,  to  the  large  Chinese  doctor  one  day ; 
"  Doctor  Ah  Hue,  there  are  some  things  that  I  do  not  know ! " 

Ah  Hue  looked  very  much  surprised. 

"  You  know  everything,"  she  said. 

Ah  Hue  arose,  circled  his  silk  robe,  and  bowed. 

"  Not  everything,"  he  said,  "  but  what  would  you  ask  me 
now?" 

"  There  have  been  missionaries  in  China  for  a  thousand  years. 
You  say  that  the  teachings  of  Christ  are  the  highest  and  best  of 
all  that  have  been  given  to  mankind  —  why  have  your  people 
not  received  them  ?  " 

"  My  people  say  that  '  religions  are  many,  but  reason  is  one, 
and  that  all  mankind  are  brothers.'  Now  that  is  not  quite  true, 
for  reason  is  limited,  —  the  dog  cannot  tell  how  it  is  the  astron- 
omer calculates  an  eclipse,  and  the  astronomer  himself  cannot 
conceive  how  the  laws  of  the  eclipse  came  into  being.  Truth 
lies  in  the  intuitions,  as  Christ  taught." 

"  Oh,  doctor,  I  am  not  able  to  follow  you  in  such  things  as 
these ;  what  I  wish  to  know  is  why  your  people  treat  the  mis- 
sionary teachers  so  badly  —  why  they  kill  them." 


32  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

"  Why  did  your  people  kill  my  people  in  China  towns  in 
Oregon  and  California  years  ago  ? " 

"  I  do  not  know.  What  I  wish  to  learn  is  what  made  the 
Boxers  Boxers." 

"  I  can  answer  my  little  girl  plainly  and  truly. 

"  Suppose  China  should  learn  the  arts  of  war,  and  become  a 
warlike  nation.  She  could  put  into  the  field  ten  million  men. 
Now  suppose  she  were  to  manufacture  the  finest  brandy  in  all  the 
world,  and  send  it  to  the  United  States.  Do  you  understand  ? " 

"  I  understand." 

"  And  suppose  the  brandy  should  degrade  your  people,  ruin 
their  lives,  and  that  your  Congress  should  pass  an  act  that 
China  should  not  import  the  ruinous  liquor  to  the  United  States. 
You  would  say  that  your  Congress  had  done  right." 

«  Yes,  Doctor  Ah  Hue." 

"  Yes,  of  course.  But  suppose  that  China,  having  grown  rich 
and  powerful,  were  to  declare,  '  It  is  my  right  to  trade  where  I 
please  and  in  any  commodity.  It  is  the  right  of  trade.  I  only 
ask  from  other  nations  the  same  port  rights  that  I  give  to  other 
nations.'  Now  suppose  that  she  sends  her  brandy  to  Boston  and 
New  York,  and  with  it  a  navy  to  enforce  its  sale.  Ne\v  York 
resists,  but  the  Chinese  navy  compels  her  to  accept  the  brandy. 
New  York  destroys  the  brandy,  and  the  navy  takes  Long  Island 
for  her  Hong-kong,  and  so  enforces  the  ruinous  liquor  on  Amer- 
ica. How  would  your  people  regard  China  ?  " 

"  They  would  say  that  they  worshipped  markets  rather  than 
God." 

"  Well,  my  little  girl,  England  acted  in  much  that  way  toward 
China,  in  enforcing  opium  upon  our  people,  and  that  act  of 
injustice  began  to  make  Boxers,  —  Chinamen  who  looked  upon 
white  people  as  '  foreign  devils.' 

"  You  have  heard  of  Touquin.  The  French  by  a  treaty  gained 
a  concession  there.  They  encountered  the  Black  Flags,  as  the 


A    CHIXKSK    GUARDIAN    I>KFTY 
(Imajre  at  a  Temple  Kntranoe  near  Shanghai^ 


WHAT  IS   THE  MATTER    WITH  CHINA?  35 

pirates  were  called.  They  fought  the  Black  Flags,  but  after  the 
war  they  annexed  Tonquin.  The  Chinese  people,  having  lost 
Hong-kong  and  Tonquin,  began  to  fear  for  their  country.  Would 
not  an  American  have  done  so  under  like  circumstance  ?  " 

"  Yes,  Ah  Hue." 

"  Next  came  Germany.  Some  of  the  Catholic  priests  had 
sought  to  take  the  government  of  the  people  of  their  missions 
into  their  own  hands.  This  created  jealousy.  In  1897,  two 
German  priests  were  killed  by  the  Chinese.  Two  weeks  after 
the  crime,  German  ships  appeared  in  Kiaochou  Bay.  The  Ger- 
man legation  in  China  made  many  demands  on  China,  as  a 
reprisal  for  the  murder  of  the  two  priests,  among  them  that 
the  Germans  should  have  the  sole  rights  to  the  coal  mines  in 
the  province  of  Shantung.  The  alarm  in  China  grew  —  English 
in  Hong-kong,  French  in  Tonquin,  and  German  influence  in 
Shantung.  The  Boxers  grew  in  number  —  they  represented  re- 
sistance to  foreign  aggression. 

"  Then  Italy,  in  1899,  made  an  effort  to  secure  the  Chinese 
port  of  Sanmoon.  The  Chinese  government  put  its  foot  down 
firmly. 

"  China  said  '  No.'  The  war  with  Japan  showed  China  her 
weakness ;  there  was  terror  everywhere,  and  the  secret  society, 
Boxers,  who  proclaimed  resistance  to  all  foreign  influences, 
grew." 

"  But  our  missionaries  did  not  seek  their  lands,  but  only  their 
welfare ;  they  preached  peace  and  brotherhood,  and  all  that  is 
best  for  the  souls  of  all  men." 

"  True,  true,  but  the  innocent  often  bear  the  cross  for  the 
guilty.  The  work  done  by  your  true  missionaries  will  never  die. 
The  work  of  one  like  Morrison  will  live  with  the  stars.  But 
does  my  little  girl  see  what  made  the  Boxers  Boxers  ? " 

"  I  can  see,  if  I  am  a  little  girl." 

"  Then  I  will  take  off  my  spectacles." 


36  TRAVELLER    TALES    OF  CHINA 


STRANGE   THINGS   TO    BE   SEEN   IN   CHINA 

THE  boys,  seeing  that  Lucy  was  acquiring  much  information 
in  this  way,  followed  her  example,  and  spent  much  time  in  ques- 
tioning Ah  Hue.  In  one  of  these  interviews  Ah  Hue  said : 

"  The  world  owes  to  China  three  things  for  which  she  should 
be  grateful.  They  are  — 

"  The  mariner's  compass,  printing  and  gunpowder." 

"  And  tea,"  said  Lucy. 

"  They  also  owe  to  her  an  example  of  peace  which  it  would 
be  well  for  all  nations  to  follow.  China  has  been  a  land  of 
invasions,  but  she  does  not  invade." 

Ah  Hue  gave  the  boys  a  new  view  of  China.  The  latter 
wished  to  read  the  poems  of  Confucius. 

On  another  occasion,  when  Lucy  had  asked  Ah  Hue  as  to 
what  amusements  one  would  find  in  China,  the  whole  family 
gathered  around  the  Chinese  doctor  when  he  put  on  his  spec- 
tacles. 

"  Well,  my  girl,  you  will  like  to  see  the  jugglers  in  the  public 
squares.  They  will  give  a  man  a  rug  or  cloth  to  shake  and 
spread  on  the  ground,  and  soon  wonderful  things,  as  trees, 
animals,  and  perhaps  a  child  will  be  found  under  the  rug,  which 
did  not  appear  in  the  rug  when  it  was  shaken,  and  which  could 
not  have  come  up  from  the  ground. 

"  Then  the  theatres  may  amuse  you.  The  Chinese  plays  arc 
long,  and  the  actors  appear  in  terrible  forms,  and  shout  so  loud 
that  the  tragedy  becomes  a  comedy  in  the  Eastern  :iuc. 

"  You  will  find  in  some  of  the  temples  very  grotesque  gods, 
as  gods  of  war,  gods  in  the  form  of  animals,  and  you  will  see 
signs  over  shops  '  Buddhas  made.' 

"The  cangue  malefactor  will  surprise  you,  and  you  will  pity 
him  ;  he  wears  a  board  collar  as  large  as  the  top  of  a  table.  He 


AMERICAN   TEA -FARMS  39 

cannot  see  his  feet  with  his  collar  on,  nor  feed  himself,  and  he 
must  hold  up  the  collar  board  continually,  or  it  will  wear  off  his 
neck.  He  will  sometimes  get  a  friend  to  hold  up  the  board  for 
relief,  or  rest  it  against  a  fence.  Some  of  these  boards  weigh 
fifty  pounds. 

"  You  will  also  see  people  whipped  by  the  bamboo.  Almost 
all  of  the  lower  orders  of  people  suffer  some  time  from  the 
bamboo,  as  the  mandarin  thinks  it  is  his  duty  to  preserve  order 
by  punishment,  and  he  punishes  whom  he  will.  Watchmen, 
with  bamboos  in  their  hands,  often  follow  the  prisoner  in  the 
cangue  or  board  collar,  and  lash  him  if  he  lie  down.  The  pun- 
ishments of  China  were  very  cruel,  but  they  are  disappearing. 

"  You  will  see  Chinese  gardens  and  lovely  pavilions  among 
lakelets  and  flowers.  You  have  such  gardens  in  your  own  coun- 
try, but  in  China  you  may  drink  the  best  of  tea  there,  and  take, 
what  the  Americans  seldom  do  in  America,  plenty  of  time  for 
the  use  of  the  beverage." 


AMERICAN   TEA -FA RMS  — HARDY   ORANGES 

THERE  were  some  peculiar  reasons  why  Mr.  Barnard  wished 
to  visit  China.  He  had  been  to  Pinehurst,  N.  C.,  and  seen  there 
Mr.  Shepard's  tea-farm,  that  was  successfully  producing  tea, 
which  was  selling  at  one  dollar  per  pound.  The  haunting  ques- 
tion came  to  him,  Can  tea  be  produced  in  the  South  Atlantic 
States  ? 

He  had  once  owned  orange  groves  in  Florida.  They  had  been 
killed  by  frosts  and  freezes.  But  certain  Chinese  and  Japanese 
fruits  had  been  grown  in  Florida ;  might  he  not  find  new  varie- 
ties of  fruit  in  China  which  could  be  grown  in  Florida  ?  He 
used  to  say,  Florida  will  recover,  and  one  day  become  rich  by 
protecting  citrus  bearing  trees.  Coffee  in  many  parts  of  the 


40  TRAVELLER   TALES   OF  CHINA 

American  tropics  has  been  made  a  very  successful  crop  by  pro- 
tection, —  why  not  citrus  fruit  ? 

When  first  the  Mandarin  orange  began  to  bear  in  Florida, 
it  was  a  wonder.  The  sun  and  earth  seemed  to  delight  in 
the  dark  green  tree.  Were  there  not  hardy  oranges  in  the 
temperate  climates  of  China  ?  Could  not  the  successful  raising 
of  Japanese  plums  be  found  an  example  in  orange  culture  ? 

There  was  another  thing  that  had  deeply  interested  him.  It 
was  — 


THE   MORAL   DEFECTS   CAUSED    BY   THE   OPIUM 

HABIT 

His  wife  was  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Visitors  of  State 
Charities,  and  he  himself  was  a  member  of  the  Board.  Ah 
Hue  had  said  to  him :  "  The  effects  of  opium  upon  character 
are  different  from  those  of  alcohol.  The  slave  of  intoxication 
reels,  falls,  wakes,  rises,  and  is  ashamed.  His  conscience  quick- 
ens, and  he  struggles  to  reform.  But  the  knowledge  of  the  illu- 
sions of  opium  is  a  fatal  one,  —  the  opium-eater,  or  smoker,  has 
little  shame  or  quickening  of  conscience ;  he  becomes  cunning, 
crafty,  gravitates  toward  crime ;  when  he  sees  his  fate,  he 
struggles  feebly  to  draw  back  from  it,  but,  as  a  rule,  returns  to 
his  drugs.  From  opium  he  goes  to  crime,  and  from  crime  to 
opium,  for  the  sake  of  oblivion,  and  he  finds  oblivion  at  last." 

One  day  Ah  Hue  said  to  Mrs.  Barnard  : 

"  The  ruin  of  our  society  is  opium  ;  the  knowledge  of  the 
drug  is  not  only  death,  but  something  worse  than  death  ;  it 
produces  a  state  of  degeneration  out  of  which  few  rise.  If  you 
should  ever  find  a  noble  soul  who  had  acquired  the  opium  habit 
in  sickness,  struggling  against  the  demon  in  the  drug,  your  heart 
would  ache." 


THE   OPIUM  HABIT  43 

Ah  Hue  admired  the  American  missionaries  in  China;  he 
thought  them  very  unselfish  people,  as  a  rule,  and  had  no  crit- 
icism to  make  of  their  methods  of  benevolent  work. 

"  He  is  great  and  good,"  said  he,  "  who  helps  others  to  fulfil 
the  best  ideals  of  life.  The  missionary  does  that,  but  the  time 
will  come  when  the  work  can  best  be  carried  forward  by  native 
Christians,  as  it  was  in  ancient  England,  after  the  teaching  of 
the  missionaries  from  Rome.  Your  missionaries  should  lead 
the  way  into  the  ligbt,  and  not  seek  to  govern  the  natives,  as 
did  Spain.  I  believe  that  they  will  do  so." 

Was  this  view  true  ?  The  Bernards  were  interested  in  mis- 
sionary efforts,  and  especially  such  as  had  followed  the  worthy 
suggestions  of  Robert  Morrison  in  China  and  in  the  beginnings 
of  kindergarten  schools  to  unbind  the  feet  of  Chinese  children. 

The  study  of  China  led  them  more  and  more  to  wish  to  visit 
that  country,  and  especially  Russian  China,  which  seemed  likely 
to  be  a  new  world. 

What  has  China  to  teach  a  young  American  trader  or  farmer  ? 

What  to  the  Christian  man  who  seeks  to  change  good  ideals 
into  realities  ? 

The  family  resolved  to  engage  Ah  Hue-Ling  to  teach  them 
the  Chinese  language,  and  the  work  of  teaching  began  at  once. 

"  It  is  a  duty  that  I  owe  to  myself  and  my  family  to  study 
China,"  said  Mr.  Barnard.  "  Every  man  is  a  debtor  to  his  pro- 
fession, as  I  learned  at  school ;  the  times  demand  that  we  should 
have  a  larger  and  clearer  knowledge  of  the  people  of  the  East  with 
whom  we  trade.  The  American  merchant  must  now  seek  a  new 
kind  of  education  for  his  sons  —  educational  travel  must  be 
taken  into  his  plans,  as  a  true  preparation  for  his  business  life." 

So  Ah  Hue  became  the  daily  instructor  of  the  Barnards  and 
their  trusty  young  clerk,  Louis  Forbes. 

These  studied  the  journey  that  they  would  make  —  the  places 
that  thev  most  desired  to  see. 


44  TRAVELLER   TALES   OF  CHINA 

"  I  wish  the  boys  to  visit  the  places  that  represent  the  best 
industrial  success  and  opportunities,"  said  Mr.  Barnard.  "  I 
would  have  them  stop  at  Rochedale,  England,  the  cooperative 
town,  where  the  whole  community  is  sufficiently  rich,  as  the 
result  of  taking  down  the  shutters  of  a  cooperative  store  in 
the  presence  of  a  mob  a  half-century  ago.  One  of  the  world's 
best  studies  is  the  work  of  the  Rochedale  pioneers." 

"  I  and  Lucy  would  study,"  said  Mrs.  Barnard,  imagining 
such  a  journey,  "  the  care  of  the  insane  poor  at  Gheel,  Belgium, 
and  progressive  kindergarten  at  Berlin.  You  wish  to  make  the 
boys  intelligent  clerks,  salesmen,  and  importers.  I  would  be 
glad  to  be  able  to  show  Lucy  the  best  methods  of  caring  for  the 
poor." 

"  China,"  she  added,  "  is  a  largely  noble  nation,  and  an  old 
one  in  wisdom,  but  she  is  full  of  the  cruelties  of  ignorance  and 
superstition.  I  would  see  what  has  been  the  influence  of  the 
missionaries  there  in  the  cause  of  justice  and  right,  —  in  freeing 
the  bound  feet  of  women,  for  example,  and  men  from  the  tor- 
tures of  the  cangtie." 

"  In  short,"  said  Mr.  Barnard,  "  this  educational  journey  shall 
be  to  find  what  is  best  in  the  new  thought  of  the  world.  We 
are  all  to  go  to  school  on  ships  and  cars." 

"  And  visit  the  new  schoolmasters  of  the  century,"  said  Mrs. 
Barnard.  "  All  the  world  is  becoming  a  school." 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE  NEW   WAY  ABOUND   THE   WOKLD   BY  RUSSIA  — 
A   JATAKA   TALE  —  CONFUCIUS 

THE  new  way  around  the  world  will  be  by  Russia  and  Russian 
Siberia,  and  a  wonderful  way  it  is ;  a  way  in  which  steam  and 
afterward  electricity  will  sweep  the  hurrying  traveller  over  a 
great  part  of  the  earth's  surface  in  the  same  car,  perhaps,  for 
six  thousand  miles. 

In  six  days  a  man  may  go  to  Havre  and  Paris,  in  two  or 
three  more  to  Moscow.  Starting  there  on  the  Siberian  railroad, 
he  may  reach  the  tributaries  of  the  Yellow  Sea  in  some  nine 
days  at  the  lowest  railway  fare  on  earth.  He  may  there  find 
ships  at  the  Chinese  or  Japanese  ports  that  will  take  him  to 
Vancouver,  Seattle,  or  San  Francisco,  and  then  home  again,  and 
so  around  the  world.  Economical  tours  of  the  world  now  cost 
from  £600  to  $1,000.  By  the  Russian  way  a  hardy  man,  or  any 
one  who  could  endure  a  second  class  passage  in  steamships  and 
cars,  might  make  it  for  §400  to  §500. 

And  what  an  education  such  a  journey  would  be ! 

u  Too  superficial,"  one  will  say ;  "  too  brief  and  too  much  in 
outline." 

True,  but  only  in  part ;  right  outlines  are  broad  suggestions. 

Thirty  dollars  will  take  one  to  Liverpool  from  New  York  or 
Boston  on  one  of  the  colonial  cattle  steamers,  and  forty  dollars 
on  a  giant  steamer  to  Liverpool,  London,  or  Hamburg,  second 
class.  It  costs  but  a  few  shillings  to  cross  England  from  north 
to  south.  The  ways  to  Moscow  are  many  and  easy.  At  Mos- 

45 


46  TEAVELLEE    TALES   OF  CHIXA 

cow  the  new  and  wonderful  route  around  the  world  opens  its 
immense  distances ;  faces  far  Manchuria,  Vladivostok,  and  the 
Yellow  Sea ;  China,  Japan,  the  Philippines,  the  American  West. 

Let  us  glance  at  the  Siberian  railway,  its  immense  distances 
and  low  fares.  It  takes  but  fifty -three  hours  to  go  by  express 
train  from  London  to  St.  Petersburg.  A  night  journey  will 
take  one  from  the  Neva  to  Moscow. 

The  cars  on  the  great  Siberian  railway  start  for  the  long 
route  to  the  watercourses  on  Saturday  evening.  In  some 
nine  days,  over  rye  fields,  past  gray  villages  and  a  level  land- 
scape, the  train  arrives  at  Irkutsk  (Irkoask).  On  some  days 
but  one  or  two  stations  arrest  the  far  onward  movement.  The 
rate  of  speed  is  some  twenty  miles  an  hour. 

The  rates  on  Russian  long  distance  trains  are  very  low.  It  is 
more  than  3,300  miles  from  Moscow  to  Irkutsk.  The  fare  for 
this  immense  distance,  first  class,  including  sleeping  berth,  is 
less  than  $50.  The  service  is  luxurious  —  stately.  The  second 
class  fare  is  some  $30  —  think  of  it,  $30  for  more  than  three 
thousand  miles.  The  third  class  fare  is  some  $14. 

A  through  ticket  from  Moscow  to  Port  Arthur  or  Vladivostok 
is  about  $60,  the  cheapest  route  of  travel  by  sea  or  land  in  the 
world." 

Ships  at  Vladivostok  or  Port  Arthur  may  be  found  connecting 
with  the  Japanese  Islands,  China,  and  the  East,  on  which  low 
rates  of  passage  back  to  London  or  around  the  world  by  way  of 
Puget  Sound  or  San  Francisco  may  be  obtained. 

A  person  in  good  health  would  find  this  trip  in  midsummer 
invigorating.  He  would,  probably,  for  a  few  years  to  come,  take 
the  route  to  the  Yellow  Sea  by  way  of  the  Amoor.  Something 
like  $150  would  cover  the  journey,  thus  giving  him  £30  to 
Liverpool,  second  class,  and  820  for  a  second  class  direct  way 
to  Moscow.  Two  hundred  dollars  might  find  him  at  Port 
Arthur,  with  some  $200  out  of  his  $400  for  second  class  pas- 


A    PRISONER    WEARING    THE    CANGUE 

(Weight  of  the  cangue  has  to  be  continually  supported  by  the  hands,  other- 
wise it  would  gall  and  abrade  the  neck."  This  is  considered  only  a  light 
punishment  when  continued  for  one  to  three  mouths) 


THE   TWO   CHARIOTEERS  49 

sages  home.  But  he  would  need  more  money.  Nothing  can  be 
more  true  than  the  saying :  "  It  is  very  expensive  travelling." 

I  am  only  speaking  of  possible  and  experimental  fares,  and 
food  and  comfort  have  not  been  considered.  There  are  good 
provisions  for  food  at  moderate  prices  at  the  stations  along  the 
Russian  routes. 

Were  one  to  go  to  Russia  late  in  July,  one  could  make  an 
aside  from  Moscow  and  visit  the  once  miraculous  fair  at  Nijni 
Novgorod. 

In  former  days  the  great  tea  caravans  came  there.  China, 
India,  and  all  Russia  met  there  —  people  by  the  million  came 
there  as  to  a  common  market.  The  railway  may  possibly  ruin 
the  great  fair,  which  was  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  East. 

The  Barnards  and  their  friends  studied  these  routes  in  the 
books  and  magazine  articles  of  recent  travellers. 

After  these  studies  they  would  ask  Ah  Hue-Ling  for  "  one 
more  Jataka  story."  There  were  enough  of  these  stories  to 
furnish  entertainment  for  a  trip  around  the  world,  and  they 
were  full  of  wise  suggestions  to  a  traveller. 


THE    TWO   CHARIOTEERS  — A   JATAKA   TALE 

IT  was  in  Benares,  in  the  days  of  Brahma  Datta.  A  Buddha 
returned  to  life  as  the  son  of  a  king. 

When  he  was  sixteen  years  of  age  he  was  sent  to  the  great 
university,  and  became  accomplished  in  all  arts.  He  seemed  to 
possess  every  virtue,  and  when  his  father  the  king  died,  he  suc- 
ceeded him  and  began  to  reign  with  justice,  seeking  only  the 
good  of  his  people. 

The  fame  of  his  equity  spread  abroad  and  filled  all  lands. 
The  people  began  to  praise  him  and  rightly,  and  this  praise 
grew.  The  earth  was  blessed  in  this  most  righteous  ruler. 


50  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHIXA 

He  seemed  to  see  justice  by  an  inner  sight.  He  rendered 
such  just  decisions  that  no  evil  person  dared  to  bring  a  case  into 
court,  and  the  great  Hall  of  Justice  was  closed. 

Then  the  king  said  : 

"  Since  the  Hall  of  Justice  is  closed,  and  I  am  no  longer 
called  to  sit  upon  the  faults  of  others,  1  must  study  my  own 
faults  and  sit  in  judgment  on  myself."  And  he  did  so,  and 
became  more  worthy  daily,  an  example  of  a  perfect  man.  And 
he  grew  in  the  love  of  the  people,  and  they  praised  him  more, 
and  no  monarch  of  the  East  ever  became  so  renowned  for  noble 
deeds  as  he. 

The  people  were  happy. 

He  was  afraid  that  he  might  be  a  partial  judge  on  himself, 
so  he  asked  his  court  and  his  people  to  tell  him  his  faults,  but 
they  saw  no  fault  in  him. 

The  court  could  tell  him  of  no  faults  in  him.  He  would  have 
to  go  beyond  the  palace  to  find  a  fault  finder. 

He  went  beyond  his  palace,  but  he  could  find  none.  Every- 
body praised  him  as  a  perfect  prince. 

He  resolved  to  go  beyond  his  city,  in  disguise,  to  search  for  a 
fault  finder,  so  he  mounted  his  chariot,  and  went  forth  into  his 
vast  kingdom  in  disguise,  taking  with  him  only  his  charioteer. 

"  0  charioteer,"  he  said,  "  ride  hard,  ride  fast  into  the  w;iys 
that  are  hidden,  find  me  a  fault  finder  that  he  may  correct  my 
faults,  and  so  make  me  a  perfect  man." 

There  was  another  king  in  those  days,  Mallika  by  name,  who 
was  also  accounted  to  be  a  perfect  man.  He  ruled  over  an 
adjoining  kingdom.  The  people  praised  him  for  his  virtues. 

He,  too,  resolved  to  ride  out  into  his  own  country  in  disguise, 
taking  with  him  only  his  charioteer. 

"  O  charioteer,"  he  said,  "  ride  hard,  ride  fast,  find  for  me  a 
fault  finder  that  I  may  correct  my  faults,  and  become  a  perfect 
man." 


THE   TWO    CHARIOTEERS  53 

And  the  two  kings  met  in  a  narrow  pass  on  the  boundaries  of 
their  country. 

They  were  riding  in  opposite  directions,  and  the  country  road 
had  become  so  narrow  that  only  one  chariot  could  pass  without 
turning  aside  into  the  rocks  and  trees. 

The  two  chariots  stopped,  bringing  the  charioteers  face  to 
face. 

Then  the  charioteer  of  Mallika  shouted : 

"  0  charioteer  of  the  King  of  Benares,  take  thy  chariot  out  of 
the  way.  I  am  the  charioteer  of  the  great  King  Mallika,  and 
my  master  is  greater  than  yours.  He  has  the  right  of  way." 

"  How  may  I  know  that  thy  master  is  greater  than  mine  ? " 
asked  the  charioteer  of  the  King  of  Benares. 

And  the  charioteer  consulted  with  his  master. 

"  I  only  wish  to  do  what  is  right  in  the  case,"  said  the  King 
of  Benares.  "  The  older  should  have  the  right  of  way.  I  am 
forty  years  old.  How  old  is  he  ? " 

And  the  charioteer  called  : 

"  How  old  is  thy  master  ?" 

"  Forty  years." 

Then  he  consulted  with  the  king  again. 

"  The  king  who  has  the  larger  domain  should  have  the  right 
of  way.  My  kingdom  is  an  hundred  leagues." 

So  the  charioteer  shouted  to  the  other : 

"  How  large  is  thy  master's  kingdom  ?  " 

"  An  hundred  leagues,"  was  the  answer. 

Then  the  noble  King  of  Benares  said : 

"  I  am  at  fault ;  the  one  who  is  most  righteous  should  pass 
the  other." 

And  the  charioteer  shouted  to  the  other : 

"  What  are  thy  master's  virtues  ? " 

And  the  charioteer  of  Mallika  shouted  back : 

"  He  overcomes  the  strong  by  strength,  the  mild  by  mildness. 


54  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

the  good  by  goodness,  the  wicked  by  wickedness,  he  renders  like 
for  like ;  move  out  of  the  way,  0  charioteer." 

"Have  you  told  all  the  virtues  of  your  king?"  inquired  the 
charioteer  of  Benares.  "  What  are  his  faults  ?" 

"  He  has  none,"  answered  the  other. 

So  the  two  charioteers  stood  still  in  the  way. 

"  What  are  thy  master's  virtues?"  at  last  called  the  chari- 
oteer of  Mallika. 

And  the  other  shouted  : 

"  He  conquers  anger  by  forgiveness,  and  wickedness  by  good- 
ness, the  selfish  by  gifts,  the  liars  by  truth,  he  renders  good  for 
evil ;  move  out  of  the  way,  0  charioteer." 

Then  said  King  Mallika  : 

"  He  renders  good  for  evil.  His  virtues  surpass  mine,  and  he 
has  found  a  fault  in  me,  and  I  would  correct  it.  I  would  bow 
before  a  man  who  renders  good  for  evil.  He  has  conquered 
himself.  Let  him  pass,  while  I  salute  him,  0  charioteer." 

The  charioteer  alighted,  and  moved  his  chariot  from  the  road. 

Then  the  King  of  Benares  passed  Mallika.  And  the  two 
righteous  kings  bowed  lovingly  to  each  other. 

"  Thou  hast  overcome  thyself,"  said  King  Mallika  to  the 
King  of  Benares ;  "  thou  wilt  become  a  Buddha.  0  king,  live 
forever,  and  I  will  pray  that  my  virtues  may  equal  thine.  It  is 
a  delight  to  do  honor  to  him  who  renders  good  for  evil." 

So  the  two  monarchs  went  on  their  way.  The  King  of 
Benares  became  a  Buddha,  and  Mallika  sought  to  make  his 
brother  king's  virtues  his  own.  This  was  the  golden  age  of  the 
virtues,  and  the  two  lands  had  peace  and  the  people  were  happy. 


THE  MAXIMS   OF  CONFUCIUS  55 


THE   MAXIMS  OF   CONFUCIUS 

LUCY,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  had  become  so  interested  in 
the  Jataka  tales  of  the  Buddhist,  that  she  wished  to  learn  more 
in  regard  to  the  amiable  Confucius  who  taught  the  people  to 
study  and  venerate  the  virtues  of  their  ancestors,  and  made 
tombs  their  places  of  worship. 

She  went  to  Ah  Hue  one  day,  and  asked : 

"  Did  Confucius  ever  tell  stories  ?  " 

Ah  Hue  put  on  his  spectacles. 

"  No,  he  was  a  philosopher.  His  maxims  might  have  been 
turned  into  wonder  tales,  but  I  have  never  heard  of  such 
stories." 

"  Tell  me,  Ah  Hue,  some  of  the  maxims  of  the  great  man." 

Ah  Hue  was  much  surprised  at  the  request. 

He  rose  up,  turned  around,  touched  his  hand  to  his  forehead, 
and  sat  down. 

"  You  are  the  first  American,"  he  said,  "  who  ever  asked  me 
such  a  thing.  I  will  be  glad  to  answer  you,  for  Confucius  was  a 
wise  man,  and  many  things  that  he  taught  all  children  should 
know  —  hear  him  now  : 

"  '  Affection  for  parents  is  the  beginning  of  a  benevolent  life. 
Respect  for  old  people  is  the  beginning  of  righteousness.  What 
is  more  to  be  desired  than  to  be  benevolent  and  righteous  ? ' : 

"  I  think  that  is  good  teaching,"  said  Lucy. 

" '  The  path  of  duty  is  that  which  lies  nearest  to  you,' "  con- 
tinued Ah  Hue,  quoting. 

"  Why,"  said  Lucy,  "  that  is  what  Miss  Alcott  used  to  write 
in  albums,  '  Do  the  duty  that  lies  nearest  to  you.'  Tell  me  some 
more,  Doctor  Ah  Hue." 

He  pushed  up  his  spectacles,  and  began  to  quote  from  the 
great  apostle  of  the  good  results  of  obedience  to  parents : 


56  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

"  <  Sincerity  is  the  beginning  and  end  of  all  true  worth. 
Without  sincerity  there  would  be  nothing.' 

" 4  The  glory  of  a  state  may  arise  from  the  excellence  of  one 
man.' 

"  <  A  gem  is  not  polished  except  by  rubbing,  nor  is  a  man 
without  trials.' 

" '  There  are  three  friendships  that  are  desirable : 

"  '  With  the  upright. 

" '  With  the  sincere. 

" '  With  the  man  who  observes  for  a  good  purpose.' 

"'When  a  man  sees  an  opportunity  to  make  money,  let  him 
think  of  righteousness,  which  is  more  than  money.' 

" '  Men  trip  not  over  mountains,  but  over  ant-hills.  Be  care- 
ful in  regard  to  little  things.' 

" '  Pride  is  loss  and  humility  is  increase,  and  humility  is  the 
way  to  heaven.' 

" '  A  sincere  friend  will  tell  you  your  faults,  and  he  is  one  of 
the  best  gifts  that  can  guard  your  life.' 

"  '  Every  good  deed  finds  its  recompense.' 

"  But,"  said  Ah  Hue,  "  there  is  one  maxim  of  Confucius  that 
is  told  in  the  form  of  a  little  story,  that  is  worth  more  than  all 
the  rest.  It  is  related  thus  : 

"  Tsze  King  asked  the  Master  of  Life  : 

" '  Is  there  one  word  that  will  tell  me  all  my  duties  ? ' 

"  And  the  Master  of  Life  said,  *  There  is.' 

"  *  Tell  me  that  word  of  words.' 

"  *  Reciprocity  —  Do  not  do  to  others  what  you  would  not 
have  done  to  yourself.' " 

Lucy  sat  silent  before  the  answer  — "  Recijiwt'ti/ "  was  a 
word  that  she  did  not  quite  understand. 

"  I  have  a  dictionary,"  she  said. 

"  That  is  a  good  answer,"  said  Ah  Hue.  "  Confucius  said, 
'  Never  say  I  am  unequal  to  this  —  but  try.' " 


THE  MAXIMS   OF  CONFUCIUS  57 

Lucy  went  away  to  find  her  dictionary. 

The  Travellers'  Study  Club  proved  so  interesting  to  the  tea 
merchants  and  their  families  that  story-telling  by  old  China 
traders  became  a  feature  of  the  meetings. 

One  of  these  stories  related  to  a  very  mysterious  root,  which 
proved  a  very  important  factor  of  America  in  China  —  GINSENG. 


CHAPTER   III. 
GHOST   THANKS  — A   STORY   OF   GINSENG 

THE  old  coast  houses  of  New  England  were  built  of  oak  and 
pine,  and  they  decayed  slowly.  Their  great  stone  chimneys 
remained  long  after  the  roofs  had  fallen  away.  The  ruins 
furnished  temporary  shelters  for  fishermen  in  foul  weather, 
and  chambers  in  the  chimneys,  wherein  meats  used  to  be 
smoked  and  kept  for  the  spit,  were  associated  with  legends 
of  robberies  at  sea,  from  the  time  of  the  pirates  Campbell 
and  Kidd  until  the  end  of  the  days  of  the  privateers. 

Solitary,  lonely,  and  gray,  these  chimneys  rose  in  the  clear, 
keen,  silvery  air  on  the  bluffs,  the  decrepit  orchards  behind 
them,  and  a  row  of  white  buttonwood,  shedding  its  parchment- 
like  bark  before  them. 

I  was  sailing  one  day  along  the  coast  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
my  eye  following  the  glimmering  greenery  of  groves  and  or- 
chards and  household  trees  on  homeward  ways.  One  of  these 
ancient  chimneys  broke  the  curving  outline  of  roofs. 

"  They  used  to  say  that  that  chimney  was  haunted  by  the 
ghost  of  a  Chinaman,"  said  Sailor  John,  who  was  with  me. 
"  The  people  in  these  parts  traded  with  China  in  the  days  of 
ginseng"  —he  pronounced  the  word  ginscnti/.  • 

I  had  read  of  many  kinds  of  phantoms,  but  had  never  before 
heard  of  a  phantom  Chinaman  on  the  New  England  coast.  Gin- 
seng, with  its  nasal  pronunciation  —  what  could  that  mean  ? 

Old  Captain  John  held  the  tiller,  and  looked  curiously  at  the 
chimney  as  we  passed.  There  was  an  osprey's  nest  in  a  decay- 

H 


GHOST    THANKS  59 

ing  buttonwood-tree  near  the  chimney,  and  gray-white  ospreys, 
or  fishing-hawks,  were  wheeling  above  it  and  circling  toward 
the  sea. 

"  What  is  gmsang  ?  "  I  asked  of  Sailor  John. 

"  Ginsang  —  didn't  you  never  hear  of  ginsang  ?  Ginsang 
grows  on  the  hillsides,  in  the  woods  of  the  West,  in  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Virginia.  There  are  patches  of  it  on  New  England 
hills.  It  opened  the  port  of  Canton  to  the  world  ;  it  is  a  magic 
plant,  or  so  it  was  thought  to  be  in  China.  The  old  warehouses 
along  the  wharves  of  Boston  used  to  be  stored  with  it ;  the  Chi- 
nese once  thought  that  it  would  cure  all  diseases,  and  make  the 
right  kind  of  a  man  live  forever.  It  had  the  '  gift  of  immortal- 
ity,' the  Chinese  said.  They  exhausted  their  own  supply  in 
their  provinces,  and  sought  it  from  New  England  ships.  Let's 
anchor,  and  go  and  lunch  under  the  orchard  trees  near  the  stone 
chimney.  I'll  tell  you  there  one  of  the  most  curious  stories 
that  you  ever  heard." 

We  anchored,  stretched  ourselves  under  the  crooked  apple- 
trees  in  the  shadow  of  the  sturdy  smoke-chimney,  where  Sailor 
John  told  me  a  tale  of  a  New  England  Thanksgiving  dinner 
which  was  associated  with  events  that  seemed  to  solve,  to  my 
mind,  some  of  the  many  mysteries  of  the  soul.  It  furnished  a 
strange  chapter  of  the  history  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  held 
me  with  eyes  fixed  on  the  sea,  not  only  because  of  its  occult 
soul -analysis,  but  because  it  pictured  the  manner  in  which  super- 
stition opened  the  way  to  the  China  trade,  and  wrought  mental 
miracles  in  China,  like  those  which  in  many  ways  and  under 
new  forms  find  credence  in  New  England  to-day,  and  it  left  in 
my  memory  a  haunting  scene  of  a  Thanksgiving  dinner. 

Barney  Post  was  a  strange  man  —  so  began  the  primitive 
narrative  —  but  he  was  an  honest  soul ;  he  meant  to  do  right, 
but  there  was  an  angle  in  his  mind.  He  was  a  day-laborer  in 
pleasant  weather,  and  he  went  fishing  on  rainy  days  in  sum- 


60  TRAVELLER   TALES   OF  CHINA 

mer.  He  had  a  sick  wife  and  a  great  family  of  children,  and  he 
kept  many  dogs,  as  such  men  who  can  hardly  feed  their  own 
families  do. 

A  terrible  thing  had  happened  on  the  white  reef  that  lay  just 
beyond  the  sandy  shore  of  the  little  coast  town.  An  English 
ship  from  Canton,  China,  loaded  in  part  with  tea  for  Boston, 
had  been  dashed  upon  the  reef  in  the  November  gales,  and  had 
broken  up.  The  bodies  of  the  sailors  had  been  washed  ashore, 
and  among  these  bodies  was  a  Chinaman. 

The  sun  rose  red  against  black  clouds  on  the  morning  after 
the  wreck,  and  the  fishermen  found  the  bodies  laid  out  on  the 
sand.  They  went  to  Esquire  White,  the  president  of  the  select- 
men, or  town  council,  to  ask  him  what  they  should  do. 

"  Bury  the  English  sailors  on  the  hill  by  the  deserted  house," 
said  the  Esquire,  "  and  lay  the  Chinaman  in  the  sand  and  apart 
from  the  others ;  he  is  a  heathen." 

Great  excitement  followed.  The  graves  for  the  Englishmen 
were  dug,  the  bodies  were  lifted  to  the  hillside  on  boards  and 
put  into  pine  coffins,  and  the  country  parson  made  a  prayer  on 
the  hill  as  the  earth  covered  them. 

Then  the  Esquire  and  the  fisher-folk  went  down  to  the  sand 
to  examine  the  body  of  the  Chinaman.  With  them  went  Barney. 
The  body  was  a  pitiable  object,  and  the  sight  touched  the  tender 
heart  of  the  field-laborer. 

"  I'll  bury  him,  too,  on  the  hill,"  said  Barney  to  the  Esquire ; 
"  on  the  hill  '  apart  from  the  others.'  " 

"  But  he  is  only  one  of  the  great  world,  only  as  one  wave  on 
the  ocean,"  said  the  Esquire. 

"  We  are  all  like  that,  Esquire  —  one  wave ;  we  rise  and  sink 
and  go.  I  would  want  to  have  my  body  buried  were  I  to  be 
found  dead  on  any  coast." 

"  But  he  has  no  name,"  said  Esquire  White. 

"  Then  I  will  look  for  no  reward." 


J 


GHOST   THANKS  63 

"  He  is  a  heathen :  look  at  his  feet  and  his  braid  of  hair. 
The  sand  furnishes  a  good  enough  grave  for  him ;  let  the  waves 
wash  over  him  ;  it  is  fate." 

"  That  would  never  satisfy  me  within"  said  Barney.  "  He  is 
one  of  us  —  we  are  all  human  ;  we  make  fate." 

Barney  lifted  the  slender  body  of  the  stranger  upon  a  board, 
and  he  and  a  negro  boy  carried  it  up  the  hill. 

He  buried  it  "  apart  from  the  others."  But  he  was  not  sat- 
isfied. 

The  fisher-folk  had  placed  stones  at  the  graves  of  the  English- 
men. Barney  went  to  Esquire  White  to  ask  for  his  oxen  to 
move  a  stone. 

"  Where  to  ?  "  asked  the  Esquire. 

"  The  Chinaman's  grave  —  all  alone,  away  from  his  kin." 

"  But,"  said  the  Esquire,  "  none  of  his  kin  will  ever  know." 

"  He  may  know." 

"  Oh,  Barney,  you're  daft.  Suppose  the  dead  do  know ;  he 
was  a  heathen  ;  do  the  heathen  dead  know  ?  " 

"  I  will  work  a  day  for  you  in  the  hurry  of  haying-time  if  you 
will  let  me  have  the  oxen,"  continued  Barney. 

"  Have  your  will,  Barney." 

Barney  took  the  oxen,  and  placed  a  tall  bowlder  at  the  head 
of  the  Chinaman's  grave,  "  apart  from  the  rest."  It  loomed 
there  over  the  sea  near  the  great  stone  chimney.  The  people 
talked  about  it  as  they  rode  by,  and  the  fishermen  as  they  passed 
on  the  sea. 

The  Esquire  exacted  from  Barney  the  promised  day's  work  in 
haying-time,  and  jeered  at  him  in  regard  to  the  monument  that 
he  set  up  to  "  nobody  from  nowhere." 

"What  satisfaction,  Barney,"  said  he,  "could  it  give  you  to 
do  such  a  thing  as  that  ?  " 

"  The  Chinaman  knows,  and  I  believe  in  '  ghost  thanks.'  We 
don't  do  right  against  the  world  for  nothing.  The  dead  know." 


64  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

Old  Barney  had  a  theory  which  has  always  been  held  in  part 
by  Roman  Catholics,  but  which  was  novel  in  a  farming  Xow 
England  neighborhood.  He  thought  that  people  who  were  un- 
able to  return  favors  in  this  world  would  do  so  in  another  world, 
or  that  such,  after  death,  would  help  those  who  had  helped  them, 
whom  they  could  not  repay  here.  He  reasoned  that  this  was 
the  divine  law  of  gratitude,  and  he  called  it  not  "  intercession  of 
the  saints,"  or  "  spirit  return,"  but  "  ghost  thanks."  He  was 
not  a  spiritualist  in  the  common  sense,  but  he  found  the  Scrip- 
tures full  of  promises  of  the  good-will  of  the  spiritual  world  to 
unselfish  souls,  and  when  one  Captain  Flanders  kept  a  poor  fam- 
ily of  sailor's  children  from  the  town  house,  and  the  captain 
found  two  hundred  pounds  of  ambergris  off  Cape  Horn,  worth 
a  hundred  or  more  dollars  a  pound,  he  thought  that  he  saw  the 
hand  of  the  dead  father  of  the  orphans  in  the  captain's  good 
fortune. 

His  favorite  hymn  was,  "  There  are  angels  hovering  around," 
and  it  was  his  joy  to  believe  that  benevolent  people  who  died 
poor  became  "  ministering  spirits,"  and  rendered  "  ghost  thanks." 
"  Any  one  who  does  good  without  hope  of  reward  will  be  made 
rich  by  blessed  company,"  he  used  to  say.  "  Every  act  of  sym- 
pathy ends  in  a  thanksgiving —  the  true  riches  lie  in  that  mine." 

He  used  to  sit  on  the  stone  wall  by  the  elder  blooms,  or 
"  blows,"  and  talk  with  the  neighbors  who  wandered  along  the 
way  in  the  shady  summer  evenings. 

"  A  man  with  a  good  heart  who  is  not  blessed  in  himself  will 
be  blessed  in  his  children ;  and  if  he  is  not,  the  unseen  world 
wil]  reward  him.  I  am  going  to  do  and  do,  and  be  and  be,  and 
help  and  help,  and  when  I  die  I  shall  go  to  my  own." 

The  people  laughed  at  poor  old  Barney,  and  said  that  he  was 
"  daft." 

Barney  had  done  one  thing  that  could  bring  him  nothing ; 
such  things  grow ;  the  Fates  began  to  weave. 


GHOST   THANKS  65 

One  day,  as  the  old  folks  used  to  tell  the  story  after  Thanks- 
giving dinners,  old  Barney  sat  down  on  the  wall  at  the  end  of 
the  cow-path  that  led  to  the  pastures.  He  kicked  the  wall  with 
his  loose  shoes. 

T  can  recollect  how  the  deserted  place  looked  when  I  was  a 
boy.  The  old  cellar  door  lay  on  an  embankment  among  dwarf 
lilacs  and  bouncing-bets.  There  was  a  hand-stone  by  the  well, 
and  the  frame  of  a  grindstone  under  a  black-cherry-tree,  where 
scythes  and  corn-cutters  hung. 

On  the  windy  hill,  among  sailors'  graves,  grew  sweet-fern. 

On  this  November  morning  of  which  I  am  speaking  Barney 
was  on  his  way  to  the  sea  meadows  to  mow  thatch  for  roofing 
and  stable  buildings. 

He  had  a  son  named  Alden,  with  a  wide  forehead  and  curls. 
This  boy  had  followed  him,  and  the  two  had  dinner-pails. 

Barney  had  sat  down  to  rest  before  he  had  begun  to  work, 
with  a  "  Oh,  hum !  I  don't  care  if  I  do."  What  that  expres- 
sion meant  none  knew.  It  answered  some  minor  chord  in  his 
soul. 

"  I  must  have  a  thinking  spell  first"  he  used  to  say. 

That  day  Barney  looked  down  the  coast  and  saw  the  chimneys 
smoking  with  Thanksgiving  fires. 

Alden  too  had  a  "  thinking  spell,"  as  he  sat  by  his  father  that 
morning  on  the  wall.  Down  the  turnpike-road  he  saw  a  tall 
chimney  smoking  over  white  gables.  His  heart  had  begun  to 
warm  with  love  for  Esquire  White's  little  daughter  Addie, 
who  went  with  him  to  school  on  the  clematis-lined  road.  The 
Esquire  was  to  give  a  Thanksgiving  dinner  that  day ;  a  part 
of  the  children  who  went  to  the  district  school  were  invited  to 
the  feast  as  Addie's  "  particular  friends."  He  was  not  invited. 

There  was  an  empty  room  in  his  heart. 

The  Esquire,  out  of  pity,  had  loaned  his  father  money  at  the 
time  that  the  "  canker  rash  "  came  to  his  family.  Three  of  his 


66  TRAVELLER   TALES   OF  CIIIXA 

brothers  had  died.  But  the  Esquire  wanted  his  pay  at  last. 
Barney  had  nothing  to  pay  —  but  work.  So  he  worked  for  the 
Esquire  for  weeks,  and  while  he  did  so  his  own  family  lived  on 
mush  and  milk,  and  he  began  and  ended  the  day  with  an  "  Oh, 
hum !  We  can't  tell." 

Alden  thought  and  thought.  It  was  hard  to  be  so  poor. 
Were  there  indeed  gods  in  the  heaven  ?  If  so,  would  they  help 
him  ?  It  was  a  faith-blinding  sight  to  see  his  father  give  thanks 
at  the  table  —  for  nothing  —  and  the  chimneys  around  all  smok- 
ing with  feasts. 

In  the  midst  of  his  thinking  spell  that  November  morning 
Barney  suddenly  turned  to  Alden,  and  tapped  his  long  bony 
fingers  on  his  son's  dinner-pail. 

"  It  sounds  holler,  Alden." 

"Never  mind,  father,"  said  the  boy,  who  was  all  heart  and 
imagination. 

"It  is  the  best  that  I  can  do.  This  is  Thanksgiving  day, 
Alden,  and  your  mother  slid  into  my  dinner-pail  a  piece  of 
rye  bread  spread  over  with  marmalade.  Think  of  her  heart, 
Alden  !  She  won't  last  long,  Alden.  I  can  see  the-  yellow 
in  the  leaf  before  the  tree  turns  color.  She  put  the  bread  and 
marmalade  into  my  pail  that  I  might  not  forget  what  day  it  is. 
Let's  change  pails,  Alden." 

The  boy  uncovered  the  well-scoured  pail  and  looked  into  it. 
There  was  no  marmalade  there. 

"  Here,  Alden,  this  goes  to  you." 

Barney  took  the  choice  lunch  out  of  his  own  pail  and  put  it 
into  Alden's. 

••  Never  mind  me,  Alden.  It  don't  much  matter  what  I  have 
now  —  my  chance  in  life  is  gone.  All  that  is  left  for  me  to  say 
is,  '  Though  He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  Him.'  We  can't 
tell.  But,  Alden,  Alden,  your  eyes  stand  wt-11  apart,  which  is 
a  good  sign.  No  good  intention  is  ever  lost." 


GHOST   THANKS  67 

Barney  had  once  tried  to  preach  at  the  candle-light  meetings, 
but  had  failed. 

Then  his  heart  turned  to  Alden,  whose  eyes  were  wide  apart, 
and  he  used  to  say :  "  The  good  ideals  which  a  father  loses  will 
be  made  up  to  him  in  his  son.  I  will  be  you,  some  day,  Alden." 

That  morning  an  extraordinary  sight  appeared  on  the  sea  — 
a  speck  of  white  enlarging  on  the  wide  purple  bay. 

"  To  China,"  said  Barney. 

A  ship  of  nearly  one  thousand  tons,  with  sails  set,  was  cross- 
ing the  bay,  going  out.  She  was  a  beautiful  sight. 

"  To  China,"  said  the  boy.  "  Father,  I  never  shall  forget  the 
bread  buttered  with  marmalade.  You  gave  me  your  soul  in  it. 
I  will  make  you  thankful  in  your  old  age.  I  can  help  you  now." 

«  What  is  it,  Alden  ?     How  ? " 

"  What  is  the  most  valuable  thing  that  ship  is  carrying  over 
to  China,  father?" 

"  Ginseng.  It  is  worth  all  the  rest  of  the  cargo.  It  is  worth 
its  weight  in  gold.  The  merchants  exchange  it  for  tea.  They 
could  not  get  into  Canton  in  any  other  way." 

"  I've  seen  ginseng  in  the  hollows  among  the  sarsaparilla," 
said  the  boy.  "  It  is  rare  here." 

Here  and  there  in  the  woodland  pastures  were  half-withered 
stalks  of  the  magic  ginseng,  whose  roots  resembled  the  human 
form,  which  was  one  of  the  reasons  that  the  Chinese  regarded  it 
as  the  gift  of  the  gods. 

"  I  can  gather  ginseng,  father." 

"  But  they  will  not  pay  much  for  it  here ;  it  is  only  in  Canton 
that  it  is  worth  its  weight  in  gold.  But  you  do  pity  me,  Alden, 
and  I  am  thankful  for  you.  I  tried  to  do  some  good  in  the 
world,  but  it  was  no  use ;  I  had  a  message,  but  couldn't  deliver 
it ;  it  may  be  that  my  desire  will  pass  onward  to  you.  I  see 
life  in  that  way.  If  a  man  cannot  be  what  he  wants  to  be  him- 
self, it  is  a  great  comfort  to  see  his  visions  fulfilled  in  his  sons. 


68  TRAVELLER   TALES   OF  CHINA 

So  life  compensates.  I  have  not  lost  faith.  Alden,  Alden,  I 
would  rather  see  you  a  man  of  name  and  influence  than  to  be 
one  myself.  Don't  you  ever  forget,  Alden,  what  I  have  said 
this  morning  by  the  old  chimney  by  the  sea." 

The  two  went  down  to  the  salt  meadows,  the  boy  whistling  on 
his  way,  now  and  then  stopping  to  uproot  a  bit  of  magical  gin- 
seng ;  the  herb  did  grow  here  as  well  as  in  the  Alleghenies. 
He  pitied  his  father ;  he  loved  him,  and  the  incident  of  the  mar- 
malade had  so  filled  his  soul  with  a  new  purpose  that  he  was 
another  Alden  now.  The  currents  of  life  flow  silently  and 
unseen. 

At  noon  they  returned  to  the  chimney  to  eat  their  dinner. 

"Father,"  said  the  boy,  with  a  nervous  resolution,  "I  will, 
I  will,  I  will ! "  He  bowed  his  head  as  though  in  a  realm  of 
fancy. 

"  What,  Alden  ?     What  is  it  now  ?  " 

"  I  will  give  you  a  Thanksgiving  dinner  some  day,  and  call  all 
the  people." 

The  sun  shone  fiercely  for  a  fall  day. 

They  climbed  up  the  flue  into  the  chamber  into  which  smoke 
had  once  passed  to  flavor  and  preserve  hams.  There  were  some 
strange  papers  there,  left  by  wayfaring  sailors.  Alden  opened 
one  of  these  ;  it  was  full  of  curious  characters,  and  among  them 
was  a  rude  picture  of  a  Chinese  mandarin  or  merchant. 

Alden  glanced  at  it,  and,  tired  of  pitching  thatch  after  his 
father's  scythe  in  the  salt  meadows,  he  fell  asleep  leaning  against 
the  wall.  His  father  took  the  paper  and  put  it  into  his  frock 
pocket,  to  examine  at  some  other  time. 

Suddenly  the  boy  started  up,  as  from  another  world. 

"  Father ! " 

Barney  opened  his  drowsy  eyes. 

"  Father,  I've  seen  something !  " 

"  What  have  you  seen,  Alden  ?  " 


GHOST   THANKS  69 

"  A  Chinaman  —  a  Chinaman  in  the  chimney.  I  can  see  him 
now." 

"  I  don't  see  any  Chinaman  in  the  chimney,  boy.  You're 
going  daft." 

"  I  can  see  him  as  plainly  as  I  can  see  you.  He  is  big ;  he 
has  shoes  that  turn  up  at  the  toes ;  he  has  silk  robes ;  he  has 
strings  of  jewelry  —  pearls ;  his  hair  is  roped,  and  his  eyes  are 
like  ox-bows.  He  has  something  like  a  breastplate  of  jewels. 
He  is  going  out." 

"  Out  where,  Alden  ? " 

"  He  is  all  fading  away.     The  chimney  is  haunted,  father." 

"  'Twas  the  ship  going  out  to  China  that  made  you  see  that, 
Alden." 

"  This  is  more  than  a  dream.  I  shall  see  that  Chinaman 
again." 

The  two  climbed  down  the  chimney  and  went  home,  Barney 
looking  suspiciously  into  the  elder-bushes  by  the  way. 

One  day  Alden  said,  "  Father,  I  am  going  away." 

The  Fates  were  at  their  looms. 

"  Where,  Alden  ?  "  asked  Barney,  with  a  strange  light  in  his 
eyes. 

"  To  China,  with  ginseng." 

"  Now  that  you  have  begun  to  be  a  help  to  me,  Alden  ?  " 

"  You  shall  not  want  for  Thanksgiving  dinners  in  your  old 
age.  I  am  going  to  become  rich  for  your  sake." 

When  a  boy  begins  to  see  the  poverty  of  his  home,  and  to 
dream  dreams,  love  is  likely  to  be  a  factor  in  the  case.  It  was 
so  now.  Alden  never  mentioned  the  name  of  Addie,  but  her 
face  haunted  him  like  the  Chinaman's,  and  the  two  appeared  to 
him  in  the  same  vision. 

He  left  for  Boston  in  a  few  days,  taking  with  him  an  old 
chest  that  had  Chinese  characters  that  had  been  found  among 
the  wreckage  of  a  ship  from  China. 


70  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

His  father  carried  him  away  to  the  city,  in  his  shaky  wagon 
drawn  by  old  Dobbin,  whose  harness  was  all  tied  up  with  tow 
strings  and  toggles. 

They  met  the  Esquire  on  the  way  in  his  fine  carryall. 

Alden  shrunk  up  in  a  heap.     Addie  was  with  her  father. 

Esquire  White  leaned  out  of  the  rolled-up  curtains. 

"  Goin'  to  sea  ?  "  said  he  to  Alden. 

Alden  bobbed  his  head,  which  seemed  to  sink  into  his  body, 
out  of  sight. 

"  But  don't  you  never  come  back  till  you  can  do  more  credit 
to  your  family  than  your  father  ever  has  done  !  Go  'lanir !  " 

He  touched  the  horse  with  his  whip,  and  the  animal  shot 
ahead  of  them.  Addie's  face  appeared  at  the  back  of  the  flying 
vehicle.  Alden's  head  craned.  She  waved  her  hand  sympa- 
thetically. Alden  saw  that  hand  when  it  had  gone  from  sight 
—  he  would  see  it  for  twenty  years. 

As  Alden  looked  back  toward  home  for  the  last  time,  he 
saw  the  old  smoke-chimney,  and  above  it  the  gray  stone  at 
the  shipwrecked  Chinaman's  grave.  That  brought  tears  to  his 
eyes. 

The  Fates  were  making  ready  to  weave ;  the  pattern  was  set. 

So  in  the  Canton  packet  Alden  sailed  away  with  a  simple 
quadrant,  a  Bowditch  navigator,  a  pea-jacket,  and  other  clothes 
from  the  slop-shop,  and  much  ginseng.  The  ship  contained  a 
large  quantity  of  the  magical  herb  in  its  cargo.  Foster's  Wharf, 
India  Wharf,  and  Long  Wharf  faded  away,  and  Castle  William, 
that  guarded  the  harbor,  sunk  in  the  sea. 

In  Alden's  dreams,  waking  or  sleeping,  three  scenes  continu- 
ally reappeared,  —  the  old  chimney,  with  its  smoke-room;  the 
grave  of  the  Chinaman,  which  his  father  had  made;  and  the 
bowery  road  where  Addie  had  waved  her  hand  from  the  open 
curtains  at  the  back  of  the  carriage  after  her  father's  withering 
words. 


GHOST  THANKS  71 

In  the  usual  way  of  the  young  sailor,  now  sick,  now  coming 
to  his  stomach,  with  an  appetite  for  salt  stuff  —  pork  and  pulse 
—  with  an  accident  or  two  from  the  spanker,  he  arrived  at  the 
China  Sea,  and  entered  that  part  of  the  burning  tropic  world 
whose  river  port  is  Canton.  There  he  learned  to  weigh  teas  and 
pack  silver  at  the  hong,  or  commercial  house. 

He  did  more,  for  his  purpose  lifted  him  above  the  other 
clerks  at  the  hong.  He  learned  the  Chinese  commercial  lan- 
guage. He  came  to  count  in  Chinese,  and  was  given  the  post 
of  a  recorder  of  goods. 

He  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Chinese  mandarins  at  the  port. 

Among  the  tea  merchants  at  Canton  was  Hoqua,  an  officer  of 
great  wealth  and  influence.  Hoqua  and  his  sons  had  the  super- 
vision of  the  American  trade  for  a  generation.  Hoqua  was  the 
soul  of  honor,  a  true  gentleman,  about  whom  American  sea- 
captains  who  visited  the  hong  brought  wonderful  stories  to 
America.  He  was  a  lifelong  friend  of  the  Boston  commercial 
firm  of  Russell  <fe  Co.  Mr.  Forbes,  a  pioneer  merchant  in  Can- 
ton, relates  that  Hoqua  one  day  sent  for  an  American  trader 
whose  health  and  resources  had  failed,  and  who  owed  him 
8100,000,  and  said  to  him:  "I  hear  that  you  want  to  go  back 
to  America,  and  have  not  the  money.  I  am  sorry  to  lose  you, 
but  here  are  your  notes  cancelled." 

Alden  heard  much  of  the  great  Hoqua  —  of  his  honesty,  his 
liberality,  his  riches,  his  silken  robes  and  jewels.  He  felt  a 
strange  attraction  toward  him,  and  longed  to  see  him. 

One  day  he  was  told  by  the  stevedores  that  the  great  tea  mer- 
chant was  approaching  the  hong  on  a  barge  from  the  river.  He 
rushed  to  the  open  doors,  which  looked  out  on  a  multitude  of 
airy  bridges  and  boats. 

The  barge  made  its  way  amid  the  forests  of  craft.  On  the 
front  deck,  just  outside  of  a  parti-colored  canopy,  stood  a  tall 
form  in  princely  robes. 


72  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

As  Alden's  eye  fell  upon  it,  his  heart  stood  still.  That  was 
the  very  Chinaman  whom  he  had  met,  or  seemed  to  have  met, 
in  the  chimney  by  the  sea ! 

A  tremor  ran  over  him.  Do  the  living  appear  to  the  living  ? 
Are  there  ghosts  of  the  living  ?  Did  ever  a  Chinese  merchant 
prince  appear  in  a  ruined  house  to  a  simple  country  boy  half  the 
world  away  ? 

The  barge  approached  the  hong.  He  stood  there,  Hoqua, 
with  robes  of  lustrous  silk  and  strings  of  pearls.  His  sleeves 
were  flowing,  his  shoes  curved  upward  at  the  point,  and  he 
wore  a  strange  breastplate  of  jewelled  embroidery.  There  was 
a  serene  look  in  his  face,  an  expression  of  beneficence,  such  as 
is  seldom  seen  among  trading-people.  All  this  Alden  had  seen, 
or  seemed  to  have  seen,  before. 

The  barge  touched  the  bridge  at  the  hong,  and  Hoqua  entered 
the  trading-house,  and  was  received  like  a  prince. 

Alden  walked  about  the  tall  man  as  one  in  a  muse.  He  could 
not  restrain  his  tongue. 

"  I  have  met  him  before,"  said  he,  to  an  English  clerk ;  "  or 
am  I  going  to  have  the  fever  ?  " 

"Where?"  asked  the  astonished  accountant.  "Where  have 
you  met  Hoqua  before  ?  " 

"  In  America !  " 

"  You  have  gone  out  of  your  head  this  time,"  said  the  clerk. 
"  Hoqua  was  never  out  of  China." 

But  before  him  was  the  Chinaman  of  the  chamber  of  the 
chimney  —  the  face,  the  robes,  the  jewelled  ornament  on  the 
breast. 

Alden  felt  of  his  pulse.  It  was  normal.  He  went  apart  by 
himself  to  receive  the  cool  winds  that  flew  over  the  forests  of 
bridges. 

The  Fates  were  weaving. 

Alden  felt  the  great  soul  mystery  of  these  events.     In  the 


GHOST   THANKS  73 

loneliness  of  his  life  he  was  led  to  inquire  as  to  the  cause 
that  should  lead  the  eidolon  of  a  Chinese  mandarin  merchant 
into  the  visions  of  an  American  pasture-boy.  His  life  became 
haunted.  He  followed  Hoqua. 

He  stood  as  near  as  possible  to  Hoqua  when  the  merchant 
was  in  the  hong,  often  just  behind  him ;  he  somehow  felt  that 
the  tall  form  in  silk  and  strings  of  jewels  was  a  spiritual  ac- 
quaintance. 

One  day,  as  the  two  were  seated  under  the  same  airy  canopy, 
looking  out  on  the  glimmering  junks  in  the  river  harbor,  Hoqua 
suddenly  bent  his  eyes  on  the  young  man.  Alden  saw  the 
glance  and  felt  it,  and  his  knees  shook. 

"  You  come  from  the  city  called  Boston,"  said  Hoqua,  in  Chi- 
nese. "  That  is  half-way  around  the  circle  of  the  world.  You 
never  saw  any  of  our  people  before." 

The  sailor  drew  up  his  shaking  knees. 

"  I  once  saw  a  Chinaman  in  America,"  he  answered.  "  He 
was  dead." 

Hoqua  drew  himself  up  in  his  chair,  and  lifted  his  long  arms 
and  flowing  sleeves  with  corded  ruffles. 

"  How  could  that  be,  my  young  friend  —  dead  —  dead  ? " 

The  eyes  of  the  two  met. 

"  He  was  wrecked  on  a  tea-ship  in  a  storm  on  the  coast.  My 
father  found  his  body  among  the  rest." 

"  Was  it  an  English  tea-ship  ?  "  asked  Hoqua. 

"  An  English  tea-ship,  bound  for  Boston,"  said  Alden  —  "  so  I 
was  told.  It  struck  the  reef  in  the  storm." 

Hoqua  held  up  one  hand,  as  if  pointing. 

"  I  knew  that  ship.  I  saw  her  when  she  sailed  away  with 
papers  for  America.  I  knew  that  Chinaman,  too ;  his  name 
was  Cumwa.  He  went  without  leave.  He  was  of  my  family 
blood  —  of  my  own  ancestors'  blood.  He  heard  the  American 
sailors  tell  stories  in  the  hong,  and  his  mind  would  sail  away  in 


74  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

dreams ;  then  he  sailed  away.  He  wished  to  see  the  other  side 
of  the  world.  This  world  is  not  so  very  large." 

Hoqua  leaned  his  arms  on  his  knees,  and  lifted  his  hand  so 
that  his  silk  sleeve  fell  back  from  his  white  ruffles,  in  which 
were  jewels. 

"  My  friend  from  the  other  side  of  the  world,  what  did  your 
father  do  with  the  body  ?  The  bodies  of  our  people  are  sacred." 

Alden's  form  grew  heroic.  His  father  seemed  a  grand  figure 
now. 

"  He  buried  it  in  a  decent  grave  on  a  bluff,  and  set  on  it  a 
stone.  My  father  is  a  man  of  heart." 

The  mandarin  rose  slowly,  and  towered  above  the  forms  of 
the  Chinese  who  had  gathered  around  him  in  the  pavilion.  He 
spread  out  both  of  his  great  arms  over  Alden,  and  said : 

"  He  shall  be  blessed ;  your  father  shall  be  blessed." 

He  touched  the  mystic  figures  woven  of  gold  threads  and 
jewels  on  his  breast,  and  said : 

"  He  who  befriends  a  dead  body,  a  Chinaman,  shall  be  blessed 
of  all  the  spirits  of  the  ancestors  of  the  man  who  died  in  soli- 
tude. Your  father  shall  be  blessed.  You  shall  be  blessed. 
Your  father  shall  be  blessed  in  you" 

Hoqua  moved  toward  the  council-room  in  the  hong.  There 
was  a  conference  of  ship-owners  there.  In  an  hour  he  came  out 
again,  and  said : 

"  I  have  purchased  your  apprenticeship ;  you  are  free.  Come 
with  me  to  my  plantation  on  the  river." 

Alden  looked  upon  Hoqua  as  a  father  now,  a  brother,  a  kind 
of  god.  He  rose  to  follow  him.  He  would  have  followed  him 
anywhere. 

As  he  was  preparing  to  embark  on  the  barge,  a  black  tempest 
arose,  and,  at  the  breaking  of  the  clouds,  some  Chinamen  came 
running  down  to  the  hong  to  tell  Hoqua  that  his  brother  had 
been  killed  by  the  lightning. 


GHOST   THANKS  77 

Darkness  and  light  together  came  into  his  face. 

"  That  cannot  be  !    That  cannot  be  !    He  had  eaten  ginseng  !  " 

But  the  brother  of  Hoqua  was  dead. 

"  It  was  not  the  true  ginseng,"  said  the  Chinese  doctors  when 
others  came  to  tell  Hoqua  the  dreadful  news.  "  We  would  give 
pound  for  pound  in  gold  for  the  true  ginseng,  and  let  our  young 
friend  from  Boston,  around  the  shadow  of  the  world,  weigh  the 
ginseng,"  said  one  of  these  grave  men. 

"  I  have  ginseng,"  said  Alden.  "  It  has  the  true  body.  Come 
and  see." 

He  went  to  his  chest  in  the  long  storeroom.  Hoqua,  the 
doctors,  and  a  company  of  Chinese  merchants  followed  him. 
He  opened  the  chest,  and  held  up  a  forked  root  that  looked 
like  a  doll. 

Hoqua  smelled  of  the  root;  he  put  it  to  his  lips. 

"  That  is  the  true  ginseng,"  he  said.  "  The  gift  of  gods. 
Weigh  it !  weigh  it !  You  shall  have  its  weight  in  gold." 

The  Chinaman  in  the  chimney  seemed  to  reappear  in  Hoqua. 

Alden  rose  up.  He  felt  himself  rich.  The  New  England 
road  came  back  to  him.  He  saw  Addie  again  waving  her  hand 
from  the  curtains  at  the  back  of  her  father's  carryall.  His 
heart  glowed  with  a  moment  of  exultation,  when  suddenly  his 
New  England  conscience  returned.  A  New  Englander  is  always 
a  Xew  Englander. 

"  Hoqua,"  said  he,  "  I  will  sell  the  ginseng  to  you  as  medi- 
cine. It  is  true  ginseng,  but  no  ginseng  has  immortal  life  in  it. 
It  may  cure  disease,  but  it  will  not  make  you  live  forever.  I 
am  honest  in  all  my  ways ;  I  would  not  deceive  you." 

Hoqua's  face  clouded,  then  lightened  up. 

"Your  father  buried  the  sailor,"  said  Hoqua.  "I  see  him 
in  you." 

The  ginseng  was  weighed,  and  a  fortune  was  placed  to  the 
account  of  Alden. 


78  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

"  The  ancestors  of  Cumwa  are  leading  you  by  chains  of  gold 
invisible,"  said  Hoqua. 

Was  this  indeed  so?  queried  Alden.  Were  his  father  and 
Hoqua  right  ?  Were  there  indeed  "  ghost  thanks,"  or  only 
invisible  laws  ?  Was  there  a  Hand  behind  his  hand  ?  Were 
there  feet  unseen  following  him  ? 

The  Thanksgiving  that  he  had  promised  his  soul,  that  he 
would  one  day  make  for  his  father  in  the  old  coast  town, 
haunted  Alden  still. 

It  rose  before  him  at  the  Feast  of  the  Lanterns.  He  was 
richer  now.  He  could  pay  his  father's  debts.  He  was  richer 
than  the  Esquire  himself.  How  would  he  meet  Addie  ?  How 
would  Addie  meet  him  ?  He  wrote  to  his  father  that  fortune 
favored  him,  and  as  soon  as  he  could  get  released  he  was  com- 
ing home,  would  give  him  a  surprise,  and  make  him  a  Thanks- 
giving. He  wrote  such  a  letter  yearly  for  seven  years,  then 
once,  in  the  same  spirit,  each  two  years  or  more. 

Poor  old  Barney !  His  wife  had  died.  He  had  had  the 
lumbago,  and  gone  yearly  more  and  more  into  debt.  The 
poorhouse  door  stared  him  in  his  face ;  only  Addie  stood 
between  him  and  that.  She  supplied  his  wants  in  several 
ways.  But  as  often  as  Barney  received  a  letter  from  Canton, 
he  carried  it  around  to  his  neighbors,  saying : 

"  There !  What  did  I  tell  you,  now  ?  It  is  « ghost  thanks  ! ' 
'  ghost  thanks  ! '  It  is  all  because  I  gave  a  grave  to  the  China- 
man. He  knew ! " 

The  East  India  Company  used  to  tell  stories  at  the  hongs. 
One  of  these  related  to  an  old  merchant  named  Denman,  who 
had  befriended  young  Benjamin  Franklin.  This  man  failed  in 
business  in  Bristol,  England,  went  to  America  and  made  a  for- 
tune, and  returned  to  pay  his  creditors. 

He  discharged  his  debts  in  a  novel  way.  He  invited  his  cred- 
itors to  a  dinner.  They  came  in  no  very  kindly  feeling,  and 


GHOST   THAXKH  79 

found  what  he  owed  them,  principal  and  interest,  under  their 
dinner-plates. 

Alden  had  a  vision  after  hearing  this  story  at  the  hong.  He 
would  make  a  dinner  like  that  for  his  poor  old  father  some  day. 
It  was  an  easy  vision  to  realize,  for  he  became  richer  daily. 
Alden  became  worth  more  than  £ 20,000,  a  fortune  at  that 
time,  and  with  his  wealth  the  vision  of  what  he  would  do  for 
his  father  and  Addie  grew. 

It  was  little  that  was  new  that  Barney  could  say  to  Addie, 
but  he  one  day  brought  her  a  very  curious  picture.  It  was  the 
Chinese  paper  that  Alden  had  found  in  the  chimney,  and  that 
he  had  put  into  his  coat  pocket.  It  was  that  of  a  giant  China- 
man in  silk  robes,  flowing  sleeves,  and  ornament  of  pearl,  with  a 
breastplate  like  a  priest's,  or  an  imitation  of  one.  They  looked 
at  it  together,  and  agreed  to  keep  it  until  Alden  should  return. 

A  carriage  rolled  down  the  old  Indian  road,  now  a  turnpike 
past  rowened  meadows,  azure  woods,  and  stacks  of  corn. 

It  stopped  at  the  door  of  the  Esquire. 

A  serene  face  stood  under  the  red  woodbines  as  it  stopped. 
It  was  the  Esquire's  daughter  Addie. 

A  middle-aged  man  got  down  from  the  carriage,  and  said  to 
the  woman : 

"  Do  you  know  me  now  ? " 

"  I  do  not  feel  that  I  have  ever  parted  from  you.  I  have  seen 
this  hour  in  my  heart." 

"  Yours  was  the  one  kind  hand  that  waved  after  me  when  I 
went  away.  It  shall  be  the  first  one  that  I  wish  to  take  on  my 
return." 

He  stepped  up  under  the  cool  shadows  of  the  woodbine,  in  the 
warm  Indian  summer,  and  took  her  hand. 

"  Addie,  I  want  this  hand  for  my  own." 

"  Alden,  I  want  your  heart  for  my  own !  I  wanted  it  when  I 
waved  my  hand  after  you  twenty-one  years  ago." 


80  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

"  Where  is  your  father,  Addie  ?  " 

"  He  is  dead." 

"  Where  is  father  ?  " 

"  In  the  old  home.  I  go  to  see  him  every  day.  I  would 
bring  him  here,  but  he  will  not  come." 

"  Does  he  still  believe  in  '  ghost  thanks '  ?  " 

"  Yes,  Alden,  he  seems  to  see  the  prophet's  mountain  vision, 
that  unseen  hosts  encamp  around  those  who  struggle  for  good, 
and  they  who  be  'for  us  are  more  than  those  that  be  against 
us.'  I  have  been  true  to  him  for  his  own  sake  and  for  your 
sake.  I  have  loved  him  for  you." 

"  Oh,  Addie,  he  does  not  know  that  I  have  come  home.  Let 
us  two  be  married  on  Thanksgiving  day,  which  is  close  at  hand, 
and  you  shall  invite  him,  and  all  who  have  lent  him  money  and 
befriended  him,  and  so  fulfil  his  dreams.  My  father  has  a  beau- 
tiful soul." 

The  good  people  all  received  notes  from  Addie,  the  Esquire's 
daughter,  to  take  their  Thanksgiving  meal  with  her.  She 
seemed  to  invite  more  people  than  the  house  could  hold.  What 
did  it  mean  ?  There  was  never  heard  of  such  a  thing  in  Cape 
Village  before.  The  old  Esquire  had  left  to  her  nothing  but  his 
farm  and  a  bank  account  of  a  thousand  or  more  dollars.  The 
Esquire  was  not  greatly  "  aforehanded." 

A  paragraph  in  the  invitation  added  to  the  amazement  of  not 
a  few.  It  was  as  follows : 

"  If  Barney,  Alden' '«  father,  owes  you  anything  —  money,  or  for 
service  — please  send  to  me  your  bill  on  the  week  before  Thanks- 
giving. His  son  wishes  me  to  discharge  his  father's  debts" 

His  son  ?     Where  was  his  son  ? 

The  people  ran  from  house  to  house  to  discuss  these  strange 
matters,  each  one  looking  up  to  the  chimney  on  the  hill  and  the 
gravestone  of  the  Chinaman  as  he  went.  Had  Alden  sent  home 
money  to  his  father  ? 


GHOST   THANKS  81 

Some  of  the  neighbors  went  to  old  Barney  with  the  strange 
news,  but  the  old  man  only  shook  his  head  and  said  : 

"  I  know  nothing  of  it  —  only  here,"  and  he  put  his  hand  on 
his  heart.  "  Is  Alden  coming  home  to  Thanksgiving  ? "  asked 
he  of  his  callers. 

"She  has  invited  me  —  Barney  —  old  Barney.  I  tell  you  it 
is  '  ghost  thanks.'  You  don't  believe  in  such  things.  I  do.  I 
only  believe  that  two  and  two  make  four.  The  souls  of  the 
blessed  discharge  their  debts.  All  this  seems  mighty  strange. 
I  do  not  know  what  to  make  of  it." 

Thanksgiving  day.  The  mellow  bell  in  the  white  steeple 
rang,  and  the  people  gathered  from  the  harvest  farms  in  the 
church,  but  did  not  listen  much  to  the  sermon.  They  were 
thinking  of  what  was  to  follow. 

Noon.  The  people  filed  out  of  the  church  and  made  their 
way  toward  the  house  of  the  late  Esquire. 

The  old  minister  led  them.  He  had  been  invited  too  — 
"  especially  invited." 

The  people  filled  the  house,  but  found  Addie  absent.  They 
asked  for  her,  and  were  told  by  the  gardener,  who  managed  the 
farm  "  on  shares,"  that  she  had  gone  after  Barney.  Then  the 
people  walked  around  and  around,  and  looked  up  betimes  to 
the  old  chimney  and  the  tombstone  on  the  hill. 

Some  sailors  came  running  up  the  hill  and  entered  the  house. 
They  were  asked  why  they  had  come. 

"  To  the  wedding,"  was  the  reply. 

"  What  wedding  ? " 

But  the  parson  put  his  finger  on  his  lips.  So  they  did  not 
answer. 

The  tables  were  set  and  loaded  with  the  usual  New  England 
hospitality,  and  with  some  dishes  that  the  guests  had  never 
seen  before.  The  plates  were  turned,  and  cards  with  the  names 
of  the  many  guests  were  laid  upon  them. 


82  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

At  one  o'clock  the  church  bell  began  to  ring.  This  was 
unusual.  Who  had  told  the  sexton  to  ring  the  bell? 

The  parson  did  not  seem  to  be  alarmed.  He  went  out  in 
the  open  field  under  the  great  shining  elm,  and  asked  the  people 
to  follow  him.  They  did  so,  filled  with  wonder. 

Presently  all  eyes  were  turned  toward  the  glimmering  path 
that  led  through  the  near  woods  to  old  Barney's  home. 

There  was  a  flutter  of  white  silk ;  Addie  was  coming,  dressed 
in  white,  with  a  cloud  of  silk  around  her.  She  was  leading  old 
Barney,  and  he,  he  had  on  a  new  suit ;  and  behind  them  walked 
a  man  with  a  firm  tread  and  a  noble  face,  with  eyes  bent  upon 
the  ground. 

The  people  stood  silent,  and  the  three  came  on,  brushing 
away  the  golden  leaves  that  had  fallen  in  their  way  as  they 
approached. 

The  parson  met  them  under  the  elm,  and  said  to  the  stranger 
and  to  Addie,  "  Join  your  two  hands." 

They  did  so,  and  then  the  parson  said  some  words,  and  lifted 
his  voice : 

"  1  pronounce  you  husband  and  wife.     Let  us  kneel  down." 

The  people  fell  down  on  their  knees,  with  streaming  eyes,  and 
Barney's  form  shook,  and  he  said : 

"  I  knew  —  I  knew  —  I  always  knew.     '  Ghost  thanks.'  " 

The  Thanksgiving  dinner  followed.  Each  debtor  found  his 
bill  to  old  Barney  paid  as  he  turned  his  plate  at  the  table.  The 
wonder  grew. 

The  old  parson  stood  up  at  last,  and  made  an  address  to  the 
bride  and  groom,  and  asked  of  the  groom,  "  Do  you  believe  in 
« ghost  thanks '  ?  " 

"  No  —  may  my  father  forgive  me  —  no." 

"  Then  how  do  you  account  for  your  life  ?  " 

The  people  stood  silent. 

"  My  father  buried  an  unknown  Chinaman.     That  was  the 


GHOST   THANKS  83 

first  step  toward  my  good  fortune.  He  gave  me  his  Thanksgiv- 
ing dinner  out  of  his  dinner-pail  one  day,  and  I  resolved  that  I 
would  make  for  him  Thanksgiving  dinners  in  his  old  age  that 
good  people  would  remember ;  and  I  went  away  to  do  it,  and 
Addie  waved  her  friendly  hand  after  me.  That  was  my  second 
step.  I  met  Hoqua,  the  great  Chinese  merchant,  and  told  him 
that  my  father  had  buried  a  nameless  Chinaman  on  the  New 
England  coast.  He  gave  me  his  friendship  for  what  my  father 
had  done  for  one  of  his  race.  That  was  all." 

"  But  the  vision,  the  ghost !  "  said  many  voices. 

"  That  is  easily  explained.  I  saw  a  picture  of  Hoqua  in  a 
Chinese  print  as  I  was  falling  asleep  in  the  chamber  in  the 
chimney,  and  I  had  a  vivid  dream.  Here  is  the  picture.  Father 
kept  it." 

"  Alden,"  said  the  old  man,  "  do  you  think  that  when  every 
good  thing  that  we  do  is  rewarded  in  this  world,  as  we  see  it 
here  to-day,  that  we  shall  not  be  remembered  by  those  who  have 
passed  on  to  the  other  side  ?  " 

"  It  may  be  so,  as  a  matter  of  spiritual  law." 

"  Oh,  don't  use  such  cold  words  as  those,  Alden  !  It  is  '  ghost 
thanks.'  Look  up  to  the  hill,  to  the  chimney,  and  the  grave- 
stone !  Alden,  look  !  It  is  '  ghost  thanks  '  -  —  all '  ghost  thanks ! ' 
Those  that '  are  for  us  are  more  than  those  that  be  against  us,' 
as  the  Scripture  says  of  the  mountain  vision.  It  is  good  to  have 
friends  on  the  other  side.  They  bring  thanksgivings  —  how,  I 
cannot  tell,  Alden." 

The  Fates  had  woven. 

Are  there  "  ghost  thanks  ?  " 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE  SILENT   MYSTERY    OF   THE   FUNG   SHUI  - 
ANCESTOR   WORSHIP 

AH  HUE  related  some  stories  that  at  once  greatly  surprised 
and  also  enlightened  our  intending  travellers. 

Charles,  whose  penetrating  mind  wished  to  learn  all  Chinese 
popular  terms  that  represented  what  he  had  not  comprehended, 
said,  one  evening : 

"  Ah  Hue,  what  is  Fung  Shui?" 

"  You  have  asked  me  a  difficult  question,  my  friend.  It  is  a 
kind  of  spiritualism ;  it  is  a  universal  secret  belief,  but  it  con- 
trols life  everywhere  in  China.  There  are  Buddhists  and 
Taouists  in  China,  and  people  of  many  beliefs,  but  all  believe  in 
the  power  of  Fung  Shui." 

"  I  have  read  that  it  is  this  belief  that  interferes  with  the 
building  of  railroads,  the  running  of  telegraph  lines,  and  all 
manner  of  improvements,  but  that  few  English  people  seem  to 
know  what  it  is." 

"  It  is  true.  Every  district  in  China  has  its  cults  and 
religious  forms.  Go  among  the  Buddhists.  A  friend  will 
meet  you  and  say : 

" '  Good  morning.     Amidabha. 

" '  Have  you  had  your  rice  ?     Amidabha. 

"'Good-bye.     Amidabha.' 

"He  says  'Amidabha'  as  a  charm  to  ward  off  evil,  and 
especially  the  evil  that  he  thinks  may  be  in  a  foreign  bar- 
barian. 

84 


THE  SILENT  MYSTERY  OF  THE  FUNG   SHUI  85 

"  The  believer  in  Fung  Shui  is  silent,  but  he  would  lose 
everything  rather  than  to  interfere  with  what  he  believes  to  be 
the  good  influences  of  Fung  Shui. 

"  An  unknown  evil  happens,  the  people  say  to  each  other 
4  Fung  Shui,'  and  what  does  that  mean  ? 

"  The  nutmeg-trees,  after  being  cultivated  for  years  and 
yielding  great  fortunes,  were  blasted. 

" '  Fung  Shui.' 

"  To  one  fell  great  good  fortune. 

" '  Fung  Shui.' 

"  Fung  Shui  exists  everywhere,  he  is  believed  to  be  the  cause 
of  all  that  happens. 

"  It  represents  the  universal  belief  that  spirits  good  or  evil 
preside  over  all  the  events  of  life.  To  have  the  good-will  of 
spirits  is  to  prosper. 

"  In  order  to  have  the  good-will  of  spirits  it  is  believed  that 
the  graves  of  the  dead  must  be  protected,  and  that  there  is  a 
protecting  influence  in  the  graves  of  good  spirits.  The  progress 
of  civilization  which  would  disturb  graves  is  a  thing  of  horror. 
They  who  would  break  this  divine  spell  are  enemies  to  the 
human  family  —  'foreign  devils.' 

"  The  heavens,  as  the  Chinese  think,  rule  the  earth  through 
spirits.  These  spirits  of  the  dead  employ  all  natural  powers  to 
exercise  good  or  evil. 

"  The  Chinese  believe  that  the  spirits  of  the  dead  hover 
around  the  living.  People  draw  to  themselves  spirits  of  their 
own  kind. 

"  Hence  arose  a  silent  priesthood,  Fung  Shui  men,  who  claim 
to  know  the  secrets  of  the  unseen  world,  and  how  to  lead  the 
spirits  of  dead  ancestors  to  exercise  a  happy  influence  over  the 
living.  These  men  move  graves.  If  the  dead  be  not  well 
buried,  or  if  their  raised  limbs  be  not  suitably  cared  for,  it  is 
believed  that  they  do  not  exercise  their  fullest  powers  for  good. 


86  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CH1XA 

"  Hence,  the  evil  of  evils  is  to  disturb  the  grave  of  a  happy 
soul  who  exercises  good  influence  over  the  living.  A  Fung 
Shuist  would  sacrifice  a  railroad  for  a  grave. 

"  To  live  among  good,  willing  spirits  in  this  world  is  his 
delight.  He  feels  that  his  ancestors  form  an  invisible  world 
about  him,  and  he  lives  so  as  to  meet  their  approval  and  cause 
them  to  be  happy.  Do  you  get  a  glimpse  now  of  this  great, 
silent,  powerful  belief  that  controls  the  Chinese  mind  and 
character?" 

"  Was  this  the  doctrine  of  Confucius  ?  "  asked  Charlie. 

"  No,  this  belief  is  one  of  the  most  ancient  in  China  ;  it  arose 
before  Confucius.  Confucius  taught  a  system  of  morals ;  that 
we  should  treat  others  as  though  they  were  ourselves.  To  him 
the  heavens  were  God,  and  to  obey  the  will  of  our  noblest 
ancestors  was  our  highest  duty.  He  strengthened  the  ancient 
and  popular  belief  in  seeking  the  good-will  of  spiritual  powers. 
Confuciu's  was  a  philosopher." 

"  There  is  some  truth  in  the  Chinese  view  of  the  spiritual 
world.  Why  should  not  missionaries  accept  as  much  of  it  as  is 
true,  and  build  upon  it  ?  Christ  did  that ;  he  came  not  to 
destroy  what  was  true  in  the  Hebrew  religion  of  the  past,  but 
to  fulfil  it." 

"  I  cannot  answer  you  that,  my  young  man.  Truth  is 
truth  wherever  found,  and  it  is  the  destiny  of  the  light  of 
the  truth  to  grow.  The  Chinese  can  learn  more  from  us 
than  we  can  from  them,  but  we  can  learn  many  things  from 
them. 

"  Enlightenment  has  many  sides,  and  is  a  matter  of  slow 
growth.  Men  are  studying  the  truth  in  everything,  and  civiliza- 
tion is  finding  some  good  everywhere.  All  travel  tends  to  good, 
and  he  who  carries  into  travel  a  good  soul  is  a  missionary. 
The  world  grows  by  those  who  seek  others'  good.  The  mission- 
ary spirit  tends  to  good  everywhere." 


THE  PRAYING-WHEEL  87 

Charlie's  next  question  was  one  that  startled  all  but  Ah  Hue, 
on  account  of  their  ignorance. 
It  was  — 

"  What  is  the  praying-wheel  of  Tibet  ?  " 
To  which  Ah  Hue  furnished  very  interesting  information. 


THE   PRAYING -WHEEL 

THE  earth  turns  on  its  axis,  the  planets  on  their  axes,  and  the 
earth  and  planets  turn  around  the  sun,  and  the  sun  himself  may 
be  revolving  around  some  other  system  of  gravitating  worlds. 
All  are  turning ;  all  things  move  in  a  circle,  and  form  a  ring, 
emblem  of  endless  existence. 

Life  itself  moves  in  a  circle.  To  praise  the  author  of  all 
life  is  to  give  merit,  to  pray  for  righteousness  is  to  gain  merit. 
So  say  the  Buddhists  of  Tibet  and  of  the  neighboring  lands  of 
the  "  roof  of  the  world."  There  are  four  hundred  million 
Buddhists  in  the  world,  and  of  these  an  immense  number  seek 
to  gain  merit  by  praying-wheels. 

One  can  see  and  hear  the  praying-wheels  everywhere  in  these 
lands,  in  deserts,  on  mountains,  and  on  rivers. 

An  English  book  has  been  written  on  Buddhist  praying- 
wheels. 

It  shows  a  like  symbolism  in  all  lands ;  in  the  book  of  Ezekiel, 
and  in  Egyptian  and  ancient  literature.  So  said  Ah  Hue. 

What  is  a  praying-wheel  ?  It  is  a  cylinder  in  which  are 
placed  psalms,  or  paper  poems  of  praise  to  the  Supreme  Power. 

It  may  be  as  large  as  a  tower  and  need  the  strength  of  many 
lamas  to  turn  it,  or  like  a  barrel,  when  it  may  be  turned  by 
water,  but  it  is  usually  a  small  cylinder,  such  as  may  be  carried 
about. 

When  he  is  resting  the  lama  turns  the  praying-wheel.     In 


88  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

the  morning  he  praises  heaven  by  turning  the  praying-wheel 
with  its  hymn  of  praise.  In  the  evening  he  does  the  same. 
When  he  feels  his  human  needs  in  temptation  or  in  sickness  he 
turns  this  wheel.  Alone,  he  keeps  it  turning  —  he  gathers 
merit  to  his  soul  whenever  and  wherever  he  turns  his  wheel. 

A  foolish  and  useless  superstition,  says  the  reader.  But  we 
are  not  sure.  He  lacks  in  the  highest  sense  the  right  concep- 
tion of  God  because  it  has  not  been  revealed  to  him,  but  his 
praying-wheel  keeps  his  thoughts  on  sacred  things  as  far  as  he 
may  know  them.  His  soul  craves  worship,  and  he  finds  it  in 
the  praying-wheel.  All  things  are  turning;  his  prayers  must 
turn  with  them. 

He  expects  to  fill  a  cycle  of  destiny,  and  then  he  wishes  to 
rise ;  so  he  puts  his  prayer  for  this  higher  life  into  the  turning 
wheel,  and  prays  in  this  way  from  youth  to  age  ;  he  begins  to 
turn  the  wheel  as  a  child,  he  turns  it  with  his  dying  hands. 

His  ancestors  turned  the  wheel.  It  has  become  the  most 
sacred  thing  in  his  existence  to  him.  He  loves  to  hear  it  whirl, 
and  its  bell  tinkle,  when  it  has  a  bell. 

The  great  lama  temples  are  full  of  turning  wheels. 

Some  of  these  wheels  are  great  upright  cylinders,  having 
ten  thousand  prayers  or  ascriptions  of  praise.  They  burr 
like  a  factory,  and  the  turning  of  the  wheels  are  like  music 
—  the  music  of  the  wheels  —  the  music  of  the  expected  higher 
life. 

The  Catholic  rosary  has  a  somewhat  like  suggestion  ;  even 
the  Protestant  prayer-book  may  be  used  like  a  turning  wheel. 

The  pious  in  Tibet  place  these  wheels  in  the  currents  of  the 
rivers  so  that  they  may  be  continually  praying  for  the  progress 
of  his  soul.  They  are  hung  in  trees  —  the  more  prayers  the 
greater  merit. 

It  is  an  interesting  sight  to  see  in  some  desert  place  a  solitary 
Buddhist  turning  his  wheel  in  the  sunset.  He  may  give  it  to 


THE  BUDDHIST  BIRD  — A   JATAKA  STORY  89 

the  wind  to  turn,  but  he  listens  to  the  rotary  music  while  he 
provides  his  evening  meal. 

Then  he  lies  down  and  still  listens  to  the  wheel.  His  thoughts 
rise  far  away.  He  dreams.  He  fancies  that  he  will  be  beyond 
trouble  when  he  is  reborn.  Is  not  his  wheel  turning  and 
gathering  merit  for  him  ?  He  will  be  reborn  an  angel  and 
beyond  the  temptations  of  the  body.  Is  not  his  merit  wheel 
turning  ?  He  will  no  more  hunger  or  thirst.  There  will  be  no 
more  deserts  in  the  bright  regions  above  and  beyond.  So  his 
wheel  turns  and  turns  and  sleep  falls  upon  him,  and  he  awakens 
to  hear  the  wheel  still  answering  his  desire  for  merit.  He  pre- 
pares his  simple  food  for  breakfast  to  the  sound  of  the  turning 
wheel.  So  his  life  goes  on  in  prayer. 

Some  one  has  said  that  if  a  missionary  could  convince  the 
Asiatic  world  that  Christ  was  a  Buddha,  the  four  hundred  mil- 
lions of  Buddhists  would  be  converted  on  that  great  day,  and  all 
of  the  followers  of  Gautama  become  Christians.  This  is  not  true. 
Yet  we  may  not  despise  the  praying,  if  we  may  not  make  "  end- 
less repetitions  as  the  heathen  do ; "  we  hear  the  soul  of  a 
human  being  "  travelling  and  groaning "  in  the  praying-wheel, 
like  Ajax  crying  for  light,  like  the  call  of  the  Islamite  in  the 
open  chamber  of  the  minaret ;  the  unborn  desire  of  the  soul,  the 
spiritual  intuition,  the  irrepressible  longing  and  harp  note,  is  in 
the  pray  ing- wheel. 


THE   BUDDHIST   BIRD  — A   JATAKA   STORY 

ONCE  upon  a  time  in  the  days  of  Brahma-datta,  a  Buddha 
came  to  life  again  and  was  born  in  the  form  of  a  bird,  and  he 
became  a  Counsellor  Bird. 

He  made  his  home  in  a  lofty  tree  that  produced  a  great 
amount  of  sheltering  foliage,  and  dropped  this  foliage  in  heaps 


90 

of  dry  leaves  every  year,  and  a  great  number  of  birds  built  their 
nests  in  the  tree. 

Then  said  the  Buddha  bird : 

"  What  would  happen  to  us,  0  birds,  if  the  dry  leaves  on  the 
ground  should  get  on  fire  ?  " 

And  they  considered  the  matter  and  saw  their  danger. 

There  was  a  wise  bird  among  them,  or  one  so  regarded, 
and  the  birds  told  him  what  the  Buddhist  bird  had  said,  and  he 
answered  them : 

"  The  heaps  of  dry  leaves  will  never  take  fire.  The  Coun- 
sellor Bird  sees  a  crocodile  in  a  drop  of  water." 

The  tree  grew  strong,  and  there  were  two  branches  that 
crossed  each  other,  and  rubbed  against  each  other. 

Now  when  the  wind  blew  heavily,  these  two  branches  rubbed 
against  each  other  so  violently  as  to  produce  heat. 

The  Counsellor  Bird  discovered  this,  and  he  called  the  birds 
together  and  said : 

"  0  birds,  when  the  wind  is  high  the  two  branches  rub  together 
and  produce  heat.  What  would  happen  were  the  dry  winds  to 
blow  high  and  long?  The  tree  is  full  of  dead  leaves  and 
branches,  and  under  it  are  piles  of  dry  twigs  and  dead  leaves. 
There  is  danger  that  the  tree  in  a  dry  wind  that  should  blow 
high  and  long  would  take  fire.  0  birds,  let  us  remove  our 
nests." 

And  the  birds  again  took  counsel  with  the  wise  bird,  and  the 
wise  bird  said  : 

"  There  is  no  danger  here,  and  this  tree  is  the  king  of  the 
forest.  He  sees  a  crocodile  in  a  drop  of  water." 

So  the  birds  said  to  the  Counsellor  Bird : 

"  This  is  a  goodly  tree,  and  there  is  no  danger  here,  whether 
the  wind  blow  wet  or  dry.  You  see  a  crocodile  in  a  drop  of 
water." 

The  Counsellor  Bird  removed  his  nest  to  another  tree  in  a 


THE  BUDDHIST  BIRD  — A  JATAKA  STORY  91 

solitary  place,  where  there  were  no  limbs  that  rubbed  against 
each  other. 

Many  years  passed.  The  other  tree  grew  old  and  dry.  Great 
heaps  of  fallen  limbs  were  piled  up  under  it.  The  bird  colony 
grew  there  and  nests  were  multiplied. 

At  last  in  the  nesting  season  there  came  from  the  desert  a 
high  dry  wind,  and  it  blew  all  the  day,  and  the  branches  of  the 
tree  that  rubbed  against  each  other  creaked. 

And  the  dry  wind  blew  during  the  night,  and  the  next  day  it 
continued  to  blow. 

In  the  twilight  of  the  second  day,  it  still  being  dry,  a  smoke 
began  to  rise  from  the  great  tree.  A  little  later,  and  the  tree 
was  on  fire.  Then  the  birds  became  frantic.  They  flew  up 
into  the  air,  crying,  "  Our  nests,  our  nests !  the  tree  is  on 
fire ! " 

The  tree  blazed.  It  dropped  burning  wood  to  the  ground, 
and  set  on  fire  the  fallen  branches  and  leaves  there.  Then  as 
the  dry  wind  continued  to  blow,  the  whole  tree  and  the  forest 
became  enveloped  in  flames,  and  the  birds  perished  and  their 
nests  were  burned  up. 

But  the  nest  of  the  Buddha  bird  in  the  solitary  place  was  not 
injured,  only  the  smoke  encompassed  the  tree. 

But  the  wise  bird  of  the  great  tree  escaped,  and  when  the  dry 
wind  ceased  and  the  rain  began  to  fall,  the  wise  bird  came  to  see 
the  Buddha  bird. 

"  Our  tree  is  in  ruins,"  said  the  wise  bird,  "  as  you  predicted 
it  would  be.  I  thought  that  you  saw  a  crocodile  in  a  drop  of 
water." 

«  I  did." 

"  But  how  do  you  see  these  things  ?  A  crocodile  cannot 
be  in  a  drop  of  water  —  the  greater  cannot  be  in  the 
less." 

"  But  a  little  crocodile  may  be  in  a  drop  of  water,  and  a  drop 


92  TRAVELLER   TALES   OF  CHINA 

of  water  may  become  a  pond.  The  cause  of  the  fire  was  long 
ago  in  the  tree,  and  the  power  to  produce  the  fire  has  ever 
been  in  the  air.  It  has  been  given  to  me  to  see  the  great 
in  the  little.  I  do  not  argue,  I  see.  I  was  born  a  Buddha 
bird." 


CHAPTER  V. 
CHINA,   THE   WONDERFUL 

THE  kingdom  celestial !  the  empire  gained  power  by  the  arts 
rather  than  by  arms,  that  grew  from  within  rather  than  from 
without,  and  sought  peace  rather  than  conquest.  Manchuria 
was  old  in  the  days  of  Moses  and  the  Exodus. 

Printing  came  from  China,  the  invention  of  gunpowder,  the 
wearing  of  beautiful  fabrics  of  silk,  the  handicraft  of  pottery, 
the  beverage  of  tea.  China  had  a  civilization  when  the  now 
boastful  civilized  nations  were  barbarous.  She  made  her  law 
of  state  and  life  the  principles  of  the  greatest  philosopher  ever 
sent  to  her,  —  Confucius,  —  and  his  teaching  was  "  never  to  do 
to  another  what  you  would  not  have  done  to  yourself." 

Buddhism  swept  over  her  and  entered  the  heart  of  her  vast 
populations.  She  began  to  worship  ancestors,  and  to  make  the 
tombs  of  the  virtuous  her  shrines.  She  came  to  the  belief  that 
the  dead  kne^v,  and  that  to  please  the  souls  of  the  departed  was 
to  fulfil  the  highest  life. 

She  did  not  go  forth  to  invade,  but  she  was  invaded.  To 
keep  her  own  peace,  she  built  a  wall  thirty  feet  high  and 
twelve  thousand  miles  long,  protected  by  fortress  towers. 

But  the  savage  Mongols  broke  in  upon  her  peace ;  the  rest- 
less Mohammedan  conquerors  strewed  her  plains  with  ruins  and 
bones,  and  the  fierce  Tartars  filled  her  thrones.  She  sunk  again 
and  again,  but  she  rose  China.  She  was  true  to  her  own. 

We  say  that  she  is  falling  again,  but  it  has  happened  before. 


94  TRAVELLER   TALES  OF  CHINA 

It  is  the  law  of  China  to  be  baffled,  but  to  rise  again ;  she  arises 
China,  but  hardly  the  same  China  as  before. 

Missionaries  of  noble  purpose  have  gone  to  her,  like  Morrison, 
and  have  sought  to  teach  her  people  the  principles  of  the  higher 
life,  but  the  Christian  nations  have  again  and  again  treated  her 
like  barbarians,  forcing  opium  upon  her,  and  robbing  her  of 
her  honest  and  peaceful  products,  and  so  hindered  the  work 
of  those  who  would  lift  her  spirit  into  the  light  of  the  Gospel 
hopes. 

She  has  had  splendid  rulers,  —  men  who  have  seen  what  it 
was  to  be  noble  from  the  light  in  their  own  souls. 

Except  the  teachings  of  Christ,  which  are  divine  and  the  best 
for  all  men,  the  "  powers  "  have  little  to  carry  to  her,  and  their 
selfishness  makes  the  noble  work  of  the  missionary  hard. 

So  she  arose  in  the  far  past,  has  been  crushed  in  her  pacific 
isolation,  but  has  arisen,  and  stood.  She  accepted  Buddhism  as 
a  higher  teaching ;  she  would  probably  accept  Christianity,  were 
it  presented  to  her  after  the  Christian  example  of  the  powers 
that  profess  it,  as  the  highest  teaching. 

Writers  and  travellers  tell  the  world  of  her  superstitions,  and 
put  such  travesties  in  the  place  of  her  true  life.  Most  nations 
have,  or  have  had,  superstitions  as  gross,  policies  of  state  as 
cunning,  and  as  great  selfishness  and  greed.  It  seems  as  though 
the  Western  world  had  combined  to  see  only  what  is  grotesque 
in  China,  and  to  grind  her  like  the  Tartars  beneath  their  heel. 

She  appeals  to  the  conscience  of  humanity,  and  to  help  to 
make  China  noble  and  great  is  to  make  the  Western  world 
Christian  in  its  national  policies,  so  as  to  give  Christian  teachers 
power. 

The  work  done  for  the  Chinese  in  America  has  had  the  true 
spirit  of  brotherhood,  as  has  had  the  work  of  those  missionaries 
who  have  gone  to  the  Chinese,  and  said  :  "  I  come  to  you  empty- 
handed  ;  I  seek  nothing  but  the  good  of  the  soul." 


CHINA  THE  WONDERFUL  97 

Her  population  is  five  times  that  of  the  United  States.  Under 
an  honest  Christian  civilization,  what  might  not  this  people  be- 
come ! 

Look  at  her  territories,  —  if  her  empire  beyond  the  great 
wall  may  be  so  called ;  Manchuria,  which  is  practically  Rus- 
sian China,  Corea,  Mongolia,  Tibet,  Turkestan,  the  island  of 
Formosa,  and  her  other  islands.  It  is  a  wonder  how  these  vast 
empires  hold  each  other  so  firmly  by  the  hand,  as  of  common 
blood.  The  Tartar  soldier  guards  all. 

Her  magnificent  river  systems  have  few  equals  on  earth. 
Her  artificial  rivers  or  canals  are  as  wonderful.  The  great 
canal  is  650  miles  long ! 

The  mountains  of  Tibet  have  been  called  "  the  roof  of  the 
world."  Their  peaks,  many  of  which  are  higher  than  the  sum- 
mits of  the  Andes,  seem  like  pillars  of  the  sky. 

It  is  a  land  of  agriculture.  The  emperor  opens  the  vernal 
year  with  a  "golden"  plough. 

The  Buddhist  Chinese  are  vegetarians.  We  may  say  that  the 
lower  people  eat  rats  with  chop-sticks,  but  some  of  our  own 
higher  people  eat  frog  legs.  The  people,  as  a  rule,  live  on  rice, 
and  the  sight  of  an  English  or  an  American  slaughter-house 
would  be  a  shocking  barbarism  to  them. 

They  bind  their  feet?  Yes,  many  do,  —  a  woman's  foot  is 
only  about  three  and  one-half  inches  from  heel  to  toe.  The 
superstition  will  pass ;  it  is  a  national  crime,  but  we  have  had 
crimes  in  our  own  country  which  China  has  never  had,  as 
slavery. 

Their  practice  of  medicine  has  been  empirical?  Ginseng  is 
the  miracle-working  root,  but  the  English  physician  a  hundred 
years  ago  resorted  to  remedies  and  measures  now  deemed 
empirical. 

It  is  a  government  of  an  absolute  monarch  through  viceroys 
and  mandarins,  and  its  only  constitution  is  the  moral  code  of 


98  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

Confucius  ?  Yes ;  but  civilisation  has  like  analogies.  She 
needs  a  government  of  the  consensus  of  the  people.  True. 
It  will  slowly  come.  The  dawn  of  a  better  day  is  at  hand. 

She  has  polygamy ;  so  have  we  had,  and  have  put  our  moral 
foot  upon  it. 

It  is  the  unwritten  law  of  China  that  — 

I.  A  nation  should  be  governed  by  moral  agency,  and  not  by 
force  of  arms. 

II.  That  the  people  have  a  right  to  overthrow  a  wicked  ruler. 

III.  That  the  wisest  and  best  men  should  be  called  into  the 
national  councils. 

IV.  That  peace  should  be  the  attainment  of  all. 

No  nation  approaches  the  great  population  of  China  which  has 
so  given  itself  to  the  arts  of  peace,  as  to  cause  little  blood  to 
flow.  Her  best  houses  are  beautiful. 

We  said  in  "Traveller  Tales  of  Africa"  that  England  owed  it 
to  the  good  of  mankind  to  have  followed  the  example  of  the  mis- 
sionary Livingstone  in  the  elevation  of  the  African  race.  The 
same  is  true  of  China.  The  missionary  Morrison  set  the  true 
example  for  a  Christian  nation  to  follow,  and  the  Chinese  mind, 
apart  from  the  influence  of  European  commercial  polities,  is 
prepared  to  receive  the  highest  truths  of  the  spiritual  life. 

There  is  one  point  in  which  Anglo-Saxon  and  Buddhist  teach- 
ings agree,  —  it  is  that  "  Righteousness  is  revelation."  The  Bud- 
dhist monks  and  the  Roman  Catholic  monks  seek  righteousness 
much  in  the  same  way,  by  retirement  and  the  surrender  of  the 
pleasures  and  luxuries  of  the  animal  life.  The  worship  of  one's 
noble  ancestors  ignores  the  highest  worship,  but  it  has  a  princi- 
ple of  truth. 

It  is  said  that  the  present  attitude  of  the  Western  world 
toward  China  will  bring  into  discredit  the  honest  efforts  of 
Christian  missions.  No,  it  will  not ;  the  highest  truth  is  des- 
tined to  be  accepted  at  last  by  all  men,  however  unworthy  may 


CHINA  THE  WONDERFUL  101 

be  the  conduct  of  some  men  who  profess  it.  Righteousness  is 
revelation,  and  the  teaching  that,  "  if  any  man  will  to  do  God's 
will,  he  shall  know"  is  truth  that  can  never  be  discredited  or 
superseded.  False  teachers  and  selfish  propagandists  will  have 
their  day,  but  the  true  missionary  possesses  China  and  the  world. 
The  work  that  the  missions  have  begun  will  fill  the  empire. 

Let  us  attempt  to  show  you  how  open  to  conviction  of  higher 
truths  is  the  Chinese  heart,  even  when  the  teaching  is  mingled 
with  ambition  and  superstition. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

TAE  -  PLNG  -  WANG,    WHO   THOUGHT   HIMSELF   A 
MESSIAH  — A   JATAKA   STORY 

IN  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  arose  a  re- 
markable character  in  China,  Tae-ping-wang,  who  read  some 
Christian  tracts,  and,  instead  of  becoming  converted  to  Christi- 
anity, thought  himself  a  Messiah,  and  went  to  preach  to  his  own 
people. 

He  thought  that  he  had  had  a  vision  from  God,  and  the  new 
gospel  that  he  set  forth  to  teach  had  in  it  many  principles  that 
command  respect.  He  tried  to  abolish  opium  smoking,  he 
opposed  the  slave  trade,  he  decried  the  wearing  of  the  pigtail 
and  crippling  the  feet. 

He  called  himself  the  "  king  of  heaven  on  earth "  or  the 
"  Heavenly  King."  He  began  to  have  followers ;  his  faith  in 
himself  grew,  and  he  made  the  mistake  of  resorting  to  arms  to 
enforce  the  authority  of  his  supposed  new  Messiahship. 

He  swept  over  a  part  of  China  with  a  victorious  army.  The 
Imperialists  rose  to  put  him  down  as  a  rebel,  which  he  was,  and 
Charles  George  Gordon,  an  English  soldier  of  fortune,  was 
placed  in  command  of  the  imperial  army,  with  the  sanction  of 
Li  Hung  Chang,  the  great  viceroy. 

The  career  of  Gordon  in  China  was  one  of  victory.  He 
came  to  be  called  "  Chinese  Gordon."  He  carried  a  walking- 
stick  which  the  Chinese  imperial  army  believed  to  be  a  magic 
wand.  When  he  waved  it  there  was  nothing  that  could  stand 
against  him  —  so  the  "  ever  victorious  army  "  came  to  believe. 

102 


THE  ILL   WILL  OF  A  QUAIL  105 

The  revolt  was  called  the  Tae-ping  rebellion,  and  Gordon's 
men  became  known  as  the  "  ever  victorious  army,"  and  is  so 
called  in  popular  books. 

The  rebellion  was  practically  ended  with  the  fall  of  Soochow. 
Brave  were  the  rebel  wangs,  or  kings,  who  defended  Soochow. 
One  of  these,  Moto  Wang,  led  his  army  without  shoes  or  stock- 
ings, and  his  followers  fought  "  like  lions." 

The  "Heavenly  King"  fell,  but  the  Tae-ping  rebellion,  which 
cost  the  Tae-pings  the  lives  of  ten  thousand  men,  shows  what  a 
following  a  leader  who  had  true  spiritual  genius  and  an  unselfish 
purpose  might  have.  Had  the  great  rebel  become  a  Christian 
and  not  have  appealed  to  force,  he  might  perhaps  have  wrought 
a  notable  work  in  China,  and  placed  his  name  among  the 
immortals.  The  true  friend  of  China  may  learn  much  from  the 
"  Tae-ping  rebellion,"  as  this  uprising  was  called.  The  heart  of 
China  is  open  to  the  teachings  of  true  men. 

These  facts  and  thoughts  were  presented  to  the  club  which 
had  been  formed  under  the  influence  of  the  Barnards  to  study 
China  before  the  family  made  their  journey  to  the  Flowery  King- 
dom by  the  new  way  of  Russia. 

Ah  Hue  was  asked  to  relate  a  Jataka  story  at  each  meeting 
of  the  club.  As  he  had  five  hundred  Jataka  tales  from  which 
to  select  his  parables,  he  never  failed  to  present  an  illustration 
in  keeping  with  the  subject. 


JATAKA    STORY  — THE   ILL  WILL   OF   A   QUAIL 

THERE  was  once  a  good  elephant  that  became  a  leader  of  a 
herd,  and  he  and  his  herd  were  friendly  to  all  the  world. 

But  there  followed  the  herd  a  rogue  elephant  who  bore  ill 
will  to  all  things,  and  he  did  mischief  continually. 


106  TRAVELLER    TALES  OF  CHINA 

A  little  quail  with  a  brood,  seeing  the  herd  of  elephants 
coming,  put  up  her  wing  and  said  to  the  good  elephant : 

"  Spare  my  young !  " 

"  I  will  stand  over  them,"  said  the  good  elephant,  "  until  the 
herd  passes  by.  Not  one  of  them  shall  harm  you." 

So  he  stood  over  the  little  quails,  and  the  herd  passed  by. 

"  But,"  he  said,  "  there  follows  us  a  rogue  elephant.  If  he 
should  chance  along,  beware  of  him." 

After  a  time  the  rogue  elephant  chanced  along. 

The  little  quail  put  up  her  wing,  and  said : 

"  Spare  my  young !  " 

"  Spare  your  young  ?  "  said  the  rogue  elephant.  "  No,  I  will 
kill  them  and  trample  them,"  and  he  killed  the  little  quails  and 
trampled  them  into  the  earth. 

"  You  are  a  danger  to  all  living  things,"  said  the  quail.  "  I 
will  cause  your  fall  that  other  creatures  may  be  spared." 

"  You  cause  my  fall,  you,  you  ?  a  little  quail !  " 

The  little  quail  went  to  the  crow. 

"  The  rogue  elephant,"  said  she,  "  has  killed  my  little  ones  — 
he   kills   everything   he    meets.     We    must   stop   this   cruelty. 
There  are  other  quails  with  innocent  little  ones." 

"  How  will  you  destroy  the  rogue  elephant  ?  "  asked  the  crow. 

"Do  you  fall  upon  his  eyebrows  and  pick  out  his  eyes." 

Then  the  crow  fell  upon  the  eyebrows  of  the  rogue  elephant 
and  picked  out  his  eyes,  and  he  became  blind. 

Then  the  little  quail  went  to  the  frog  and  told  her  story,  and 
said  that  they  must  destroy  the  cruel  beast. 

"  The  rogue  elephant  will  thirst,"  said  she.  "  Go  to  the 
mountain  path,  when  you  see  him  coming,  and  croak  at  the  edge 
of  the  precipice.  He  will  think  that  the  edge  of  the  precipice  is 
the  margin  of  a  pond,  and  he  will  attempt  to  go  down  as  he  will 
think  to  drink,  and  he  will  fall  over  and  be  destroyed." 

The  frog  did  as  bidden.     The  sightless  elephant  was  burning 


A    TARTAR    OF    THE    CHINESE    ARMY 


THE  ILL   WILL  OF  A  QUAIL  109 

with  thirst  and  he  knew  not  where  to  find  water.  He  listened 
to  hear  a  frog  croak.  He  heard  croakings  up  the  mountain 
path,  and  followed  the  sound. 

He  came  to  the  edge  of  the  precipice. 

"  Here  is  a  pond,"  said  he. 

He  stepped  on  the  edge  of  the  precipice.  It  fell,  and  he 
rolled  over  the  rocks  into  a  deep  chasm,  and  was  broken  by  the 
fall,  and  died. 

It  is  well  to  have  the  good-will  of  everything,  even  a  little 
quail. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

SECRET  COKEA  — THE  HERMIT  NATION— HOW  THEY 
TRAVEL   THERE 

AH  HUE  had  travelled  in  China  extensively ;  he  knew  the 
routes  from  city  to  city ;  he  had  also  visited  Corea. 

At  one  of  the  meetings  of  the  China  Study  Club,  he  gave  an 
account  of  a  Corean  journey.  It  was  like  a  tale  of  a  kingdom 
of  mystery. 

He  said : 

"  There  is  one  peninsula  of  China  of  only  about  eighty  thou- 
sand square  miles,  about  which  the  great  world  knows  little,  and 
whose  people  know  but  little  about  the  great  world,  and  desire 
to  know  less. 

"  It  is  Corea,  and  the  Corean  desires  above  all  things  not  to 
be  discovered,  pitied,  or  helped,  but  to  be  left  to  himself.  It  is 
washed  by  the  Sea  of  Japan,  the  Yellow  Sea,  and  the  Gulf  of 
Pechili,  and  is  a  neighbor  to  Manchuria.  The  climate  is  glacial 
on  the  north  ;  it  rains  there  in  torrents ;  the  forest  rivers  rush 
and  roar ;  its  chief  product  is  hemp. 

"The  people  attend  a  great  fair  held  yearly  in  Manchuria, 
and  I  once  went  into  the  peninsula  with  the  people  returning 
from  the  Manchurian  fair  to  the  capital  of  Corea,  which  is 
Seoul.  The  long  procession  of  pilgrims  accompanied  a  man- 
darin, who  was  borne  on  poles  by  six  attendants. 

"  A  guard  in  rugged  clothing  attended  the  caravan,  as  some 
local  disturbances  had  occurred  in  the  coast  country. 

110 


SECRET COBEA  113 

"  Some  of  "the  provisions  had  been  carried  to  the  fair  in  ships, 
and  these  ships  had  been  towed  by  a  steam  launch  or  tug,  a 
quiet-looking  craft,  with  a  white  awning. 

"  There  are  some  objects  of  grandeur  in  the  secret  land, 
among  them  the  great  gate  of  Seoul,  the  ancient  city,  which 
towers  aloft  in  a  mantle  of  ancient  greenery  as  on  lifted  wings. 

"  The  better  quarters  of  Seoul  are  picturesque,  the  houses  are 
low,  and  are  constructed  of  glass  and  tiles  in  light  fanciful 
frames. 

"  The  principal  street  and  square  of  Seoul  rises  fantastically 
against  the  rude  and  barren  mountains.  Here  may  be  seen,  on 
the  going  out  or  the  coming  in  of  a  caravan,  the  characteristics 
of  the  forbidden  peninsula. 

"  The  palace  of  the  King  of  Corea  in  Seoul  has  a  unique 
beauty,  and  seems  about  to  rise  from  the  earth.  It  stands  amid 
fair  gardens,  and  seems  more  like  a  fancy  or  a  dream  than  a 
real  structure. 

"  The  way  from  Manchuria  to  Seoul,  the  capital,  is  in  part  by 
the  Yang-Kiang,  and  the  travel  on  this  river  is  very  simple  and 
primitive. 

"  The  horse  swims  the  river  by  the  ferry-boat,  with  his  burden 
on  his  back,  and  the  ferry-boat  is  a  simple  scow. 

"  The  wayside  houses  and  hostelries  are  walls  covered  with 
bamboo  and  grasses. 

"  The  journeys  of  officers  of  state  are  performed  in  palanquins, 
which  make  a  display  of  elegance,  and  are  attended  by  officers 
and  guards  in  very  imposing  uniforms  and  implements  of  war. 

"  There  are  but  few  English  people  who  travel  in  Corea, 
except  missionaries  and  merchants.  The  journey  is  perilous 
outside  of  the  road  to  the  capital,  and  especially  along  the 
mountainsides.  Tigers  abound  in  the  silent  rugged  forests, 
and  a  tiger  spirit  in  the  people  makes  the  foreigner  feel  how 
unwelcome  he  is. 


114  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

"  The  official  traveller  at  night  is  attended  by  torch-bearers, 
and  by  a  unique-looking  guard  at  all  times.  The  torch-bearing 
guards,  which  sometimes  attend  funerals,  present  a  ghost-like 
appearance. 

"  The  guard  may  be  musical,  and,  if  so,  will  announce  the 
coming  and  going  of  a  favored  guest  by  a  chant  that  might 
well  inspire  terror. 

"  A  Corean  bed  is  an  elegant  affair,  low,  and  having  an  air  of 
comfort.  It  recalls  a  bed  of  state  in  Europe  in  the  middle  ages. 
The  screens  in  a  nobleman's  house  are  beautifully  decorated. 

"  A  Corean  country  post-office  is  one  of  the  simplest  con- 
veniences in  the  world.  It  is  a  post  or  pole,  with  a  mat  or 
basket ;  the  Corean  deposits  his  letter  or  parcel,  and  it  is  col- 
lected by  the  postman  or  owner ;  no  one  seems  to  steal  letters 
in  Corea." 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

MANCHURIA,  THE  PROVINCE  OF  DESTINY  — GINSENG, 
THE  WONDERFUL  HERB  THAT  HEALED  DISEASES 
AND  ARRESTED  DEATH 

MB.  BARNARD  loved  to  study  the  politics  of  the  world.  His 
son  Charles  had  shared  these  studies  until  he  was  almost  as 
familiar  with  the  current  events  of  Europe,  and  even  of  Asia, 
as  with  those  of  his  own  State. 

"  He  who  visits  Manchuria,"  said  his  father  to  him  one  day, 
"  may  see  the  beginning  of  a  new  world  of  thought  and  action. 
He  who  discovered  the  use  of  electricity  found  a  new  world,  as 
surely  as  Columbus  did.  Steam  will  be  outworn  in  a  few  dec- 
ades, if  not  in  a  few  years. 

"  I  would  rather  see  Russian  China  than  China,  and  the  new 
parts  of  the  Yellow  Sea  than  any  other  part  of  the  world.  If  I 
cannot  live  in  the  future,  I  can  anticipate  the  future.  You  may 
live  to  see  all  these  world  changes  that  I  can  only  anticipate. 

"  Not  only  the  steam-engine,  but  all  the  vehicles  of  the  past, 
are  likely  to  follow  the  stage-coach,  with  its  leather  boot  for  the 
mail-bag,  and  strong  straps  for  trunks.  The  sedan-chairs  will 
disappear  from  the  streets  of  China ;  even  the  voiture  will  go. 
Did  you  ever  see  a  Chinese  voiture  ?  Look  at  this  picture  of 
one  in  the  '  Tour  de  Monde.' 

"  As  great  will  be  the  changes  on  the  water-courses.  Look 
again  at  the  Chinese  canal-boats  in  the  '  Tour  de  Monde.'  See 
their  great  blankets  of  sails.  The  dynamo  will  soon  be  the 
impelling  power  of  all  work  like  that." 

115 


116  TRAVELLER   TALES  OF  CHINA 

They  studied  these  curious  modes  of  conveyance,  then  became 
merry  over  something  else  he  had  found  in  the  same  volume. 

"  And  here,"  he  said,  "  is  an  express  wagon.  What  will 
become  of  that  ?  " 

"  That  too,  Charlie,  will  have  to  go." 

They  studied  another  picture  —  it  was  the  beautiful  harbor  of 
Vladivostok,  lately  a  sea  of  silence,  now  covered  with  giant 
steamers  and  gathering  sails.  How  noble  looked  that  city  of 
the  sea,  under  the  Asiatic  sky !  The  flags  of  the  jealous  nations 
hung  in  the  semi-clouded  air. 

Manchuria  was  the  land  of  the  wonderful  ginseng.  Centuries 
ago,  as  we  have  shown,  this  herb  was  thought  not  only  to  have 
magic  properties,  to  cure  sicknesses,  and  to  arrest  death,  but 
also  to  possess  the  gift  of  immortality. 

It  outweighed  gold  in  value,  and  when  the  crop  was  exhausted 
on  the  damp  lands  of  Manchuria  and  Corea,  the  Chinese  sought 
for  it  in  Virginia  and  New  England,  and  ships  from  Boston, 
loaded  with  ginseng,  unlocked  the  trade  door  of  China  in 
Canton,  as  we  have  sought  to  illustrate  in  a  story. 

The  club  studied  the  pictures  on  Chinese  porcelain,  especially 
the  mandarin  plates  of  white  and  blue,  which  picture  the  story 
of  the  "  magic  isle,"  and  the  persecuted  lovers  who  were  changed 
by  the  "  Spirit  of  the  air  "  into  birds. 

They  also  studied  the  Chinese  toys  and  images  made  of  jade, 
the  deep  green  hard  substance  of  which  many  idols  are  made. 
Jade  toys  and  ornaments  are  common  in  American  stores. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
A    VERY   STRANGE   STORY 

AMONG  the  people  who  attended  the  Chinese  studies  at  the 
house  of  Mr.  Barnard  was  an  old  Boston  merchant  who  had 
made  a  small  fortune  in  trading  with  China  in  his  middle  years, 
and  who  had  known  a  curious  character  called  Doctor  Wintle- 
house  in  his  early  manhood.  At  one  of  the  meetings  of  the 
club  he  brought  what  seemed  to  be  a  large  green  brick. 

"  I  have  found  what  looks  to  be  Chinese  characters  on  this 
brick,"  said  he  to  Ah  Hue.  "  I  thought  that  you  might  be  able 
to  read  them." 

Ah  Hue's  face  took  on  a  peculiar  look. 

"That  is  jade,"  said  he.  "  It  is  not  a  brick  —  it  is  a  prayer- 
box.  Let  me  open  the  window  and  hold  it  up  to  a  current 
of  air." 

Ah  Hue  opened  the  window,  focussed  the  box,  and  a  whirring 
sound  came  from  the  box. 

"  There  is  a  prayer-wheel  inside  of  the  jade  box,"  said  he. 
"  Some  Chinaman  used  it  as  a  charm  against  evil  spirits.  May 
I  ask  where  you  found  the  jade  box  ?  " 

"  It  was  found  among  the  ruins  of  a  chimney,"  said  the  old 
tea  merchant.  "  There  were  several  green  bricks,  as  we  called 
them,  found  in  the  same  place.  They  were  removed  from  the 
rubbish  of  an  old  chimney,  and  put  into  a  new  one,  but  they 
broke." 

"  This  box  would  never  break,"  said  Ah  Hue.     "  It  is  made 

117 


118  TRAVELLER   TALES  OF  CHINA 

of  hard,  heavy  material,  jade  —  green  jade.  It  must  have  been 
a  very  thin  jade  to  break." 

"  Let  me  relate  to  you  the  strange  tale  of  this  brick.  It  is 
associated  with  a  mystery,  which  it  was  once  said  could  never 
be  explained  after  natural  laws.  Now,  I  hold  that  all  mysteries 
somehow  follow  laws." 

He  then  proceeded  to  tell  the  strange  tale  of 


THE  JADE   BRICK,  OR  THE   HOUSE   ON  RUMNEY 

MARSH 

"  ROMNEY  MARSH  "  they  called  it,  or  "  Rumney  Marsh."  It 
was  in  the  days  of  Doctor  Wintlehouse,  who  lived  there,  and  we 
used  to  visit  Boston  together. 

We  had  been  wandering  through  Boston  streets,  and  1  had 
been  pointing  out  to  my  interesting  visitor  the  remains  of  old 
Boston,  or  of  Boston  town  of  the  last  century,  that  can  be  seen 
to-day. 

We  had  been  to  the  place  where  the  old  Province  House  stood, 
and  had  found  in  a  narrow  alley,  just  off  Washington  Street, 
with  its  hurrying  crowds,  a  bit  of  brick  and  mortar  that  formed 
a  part  of  the  mansion  of  the  ten  royal  governors  as  described  in 
Hawthorne's  "  Twice  Told  Tales."  In  connection  with  the 
house  of  bygone  grandeur  and  mysteries,  we  had  spoken  of  the 
strange  tales  of  Sir  William  Phipps,  and  of  the  "  Province 
House  Indian,"  the  latter  a  famous  vane,  now  at  Ridge 
Hill  Farms,  that  veered  in  the  air  in  the  days  of  provincial 
prosperity. 

"  Poore  purchased  the  Indian,"  said  my  friend,  Doctor 
Wintlehouse,  "  Ben :  Perley  Poore.  He  stocked  his  rambling 
house  at  Ridge  Hill  Farms  with  such  old  New  England  relics. 
He  had  a  mind  that  fed  upon  the  past ;  that  read  the  new  in  the 


THE  JADE  BRICK  119 

old.  Did  it  ever  occur  to  you,  my  friend,  that  boards  have 
souls?" 

"  What  do  you  mean,  Doctor  Wintlehouse  ?  " 

"  Timber  of  houses,  old  furniture,  pictures,  and  such  things. 
All  material  things  where  families  have  lived  are  bodies  of  the 
past;  they  also  hold  the  spirit  of  the  past,  like  natural  tele- 
phones. Intense  events  of  family  history  are  impressed  upon 
them. 

"  If  a  board  in  an  old  house  had  been  struck  with  a  hammer," 
he  continued,  "  the  impression  is  left  upon  it.  If  a  secret 
tragedy  had  happened  in  a  room,  the  timber,  boards,  and  furni- 
ture in  that  room  receive  the  impression  of  it,  and  reveal  it  to 
sensitive  natures  in  vague  and  mysterious  ways,  as  natural 
telephones;  to  supersensitive  people,  or  people  in  some  super- 
sensitive  condition  of  mind,  in  wakeful  hours  of  the  night  or  in 
the  first  coming  to  consciousness  in  the  early  morning,  or  in  the 
condition  of  dreams,  the  active  events  of  the  past  history  of 
rooms  reappears.  Ghost  stories  arise  in  that  way." 

"  Doctor  Wintlehouse,"  said  I,  "  you  interest  me.  How 
strange  it  is  that  you  should  introduce  to  me  such  a  subject  as 
this  in  a  crowded  street,  when  1  have  in  mind  a  mystery  that 
is  giving  me  some  secret  trouble,  that  completely  baffles  your 
theory." 

"How?" 

"  I  am  spending  the  summer  in  a  new  house  at  Revere  on  a 
hill  overlooking  the  sea,  and  were  it  an  old  house  I  would  say 
that  it  is  the  abode  of  some  baleful  influence." 

He  seemed  to  be  at  once  interested  in  the  subject  that  I  had 
introduced. 

"  Doctor,  you  know  what  my  views  are  of  such  phenomena. 
There  never  was  a  ghost  in  the  world.  Dead  people  do  not 
reappear  in  buttons  made  in  factories,  and  cloth  woven  in  looms, 
or  in  leather  shoes,  and  steeple  hats." 


120  TRAVELLER  TALES  OF  CHINA 

I  was  disposed  to  accept  the  doctor's  theory,  when  the  very 
strange  experience  through  which  I  had  been  passing  came  back 
to  my  mind. 

"  Doctor  Wintlehouse,"  said  I,  "  your  views  may  have  some 
force,  but  I  have  in  my  mind  now  a  story  to  tell  you  that  will 
make  clear  to  you  that  these  mysteries  are  merely  of  the  im- 
agination. Doctor,  if  ever  a  man  lived  in  a  house  that  could  be 
said  to  be  haunted,  I  am  doing  so  now.  That  house  is  a  new 
one  —  it  was  built  only  last  year  —  my  aunt  and  I  are  the  first 
people  that  ever  lived  there." 

"  What  have  you  seen  there  ?  " 

"  Doctor,  you  may  think  me  disordered  in  mind,  but  a  man 
with  a  crooked  back,  as  of  another  generation,  comes  to  me  in 
my  dreams  at  night.  The  room  grows  suddenly  light  as  he 
comes.  It  is  early  morning  light  that  seems  to  be  there,  such 
light  as  comes  in  the  breaking  of  a  day  in  June." 

"  That  is  not  strange.  Darkness  is  full  of  particles  of  light. 
We  see  with  our  inner  vision  —  darkness  and  light  are  illusions. 
The  soul  may  have  light  in  darkness.  But  how  does  the  man 
look?" 

"  *  Hurry '  —  he  keeps  saying  —  'I  must  hurry.'  He  carries 
a  hammer.  There  was  a  picture  of  a  man  like  him  on  the  old 
smoke-house  wall." 

"  What  does  he  do  ?  " 

"  He  pounds  brick." 

"  There  are  no  bricks  in  your  room  ?  " 

"  No,  doctor,  but  this  strange  being  which  I  nightly  see  just 
as  I  am  about  to  go  to  sleep,  or  just  as  I  am  waking  up,  just  as 
I  seem  to  be  losing  consciousness  or  to  be  gaining  it  again,  comes 
and  goes  without  doors  —  he  appears  in  the  room,  he  carries 
with  him  always  a  hammer,  and  he  pounds  brick. 

"  Doctor  Wintlehouse,  I  want  that  you  should  visit  me,  and 
pass  a  single  night  in  that  fresh,  pleasant,  new  room.  You  are 


THE  JADE  BRICK  121 

a  student  of  life.  You  believe,  like  Carlyle,  that  matter  is  but 
spirit  bodied  forth.  You  hold  that  the  spirit  is  everything,  and 
all  objective  life  is  merely  the  necessity,  the  spiritual  condition 
—  thought  form.  If  you  should  not  meet  with  any  unusual 
experience  in  that  new  chamber,  it  will  do  you  good  to  awake  in 
the  morning  and  see  the  sun  come  up  over  Nahant  and  the  sea. 
Spend  Independence  Day  with  me,  and  avoid  the  noise  of  the 
city. 

"  To  meet  your  views,  doctor,  that  spiritual  force  comes  back 
again,  you  must  have  the  environment  of  things  that  are  old. 
It  is  old  boards,  old  furniture,  old  rooms  and  chimneys,  old 
chests  and  pictures,  that  hold  the  spirit  of  intense  events,  and 
give  form  to  it  and  reveal  it  in  still  hours  to  sensitive  souls.  In 
my  house  everything  seems  to  be  new.  Not  only  does  every- 
thing seem  to  be  new,  but  everything  is  bright  there  now.  It  is 
summer.  The  hill  is  green.  The  sea  birds  wheel  and  scream 
in  their  joyous  life  in  the  clear  air.  The  ocean  is  a  splendor. 
The  sails  pass  to  and  fro  in  clear  view.  The  people  are 
happy  in  the  cottages  of  the  neighborhood.  Excursionists  come 
and  go.  The  air  ripples  with  the  laughter  of  the  bathers  in  the 
surf.  You  will  be  likely  to  have  an  experience  there  which  will 
change  all  your  views  of  life,  Doctor  Wintlehouse.  Will  you 
come  ? " 

"  Yes,  my  good  friend,  I  am  an  overworked  man.  My  prac- 
tice among  the  mentally  diseased  oppresses  me.  It  is  a  period 
of  the  year  when  diseases  take  strange  forms  and  when  my 
patients  most  test  my  skill.  I  have  no  fear  of  any  manifesta- 
tions that  come  from  the  invisible  world.  I  would  not  hesitate 
to  sleep  in  the  oldest  house  of  tragedy  in  Massachusetts  —  not 
that  I  would  not  feel  the  influences  of  the  past  in  the  rooms, 
but  because  a  spirit,  whether  embodied  in  the  flesh  or  in  a 
board,  can  do  me  no  harm.  The  spiritual  world  after  my  view 
is  all  around  us,  and  you  no  more  see  the  substance  of  the  spirit 


122  TRAVELLER  TALES  OF  CHINA 

in  living  beings  than  in  beings  that  do  not  appear  to  material 
eyes.  I  see  your  form,  you  see  mine ;  forms  come  and  go  — 
vanish  in  the  light.  There  may  be  twice  as  many  spirits  as 
there  are  forms  in  this  room.  Let  us  go." 

We  parted  at  the  Mather  tomb  in  the  Burying-ground  on 
Copp's  Hill,  as  we  were  going  different  ways. 

"  You  will  spend  the  July  holidays  with  me  ?"  I  added,  as  I 
took  his  hand  in  parting. 

"  Yes,  yes,  my  friend,  your  story  interests  me,  apart  from  the 
fact  that  I  am'  always  happy  to  be  with  you.  You  have  ears  to 
hear  what  I  have  to  say,  and  1  love  to  think  my  thoughts  to  a 
sensitive  and  sympathetic  soul.  Do  you  know  —  I  believe  that 
good  influences  adhere  to 'things  as  well  as  evil  ones?  You 
smile,  but  I  do  not  doubt  that  the  things  handled  by  St.  Paul, 
as  recalled  in  the  Bible,  may  have  a  healing  influence.  Yes, 
yes,  I  will  come,  and  I  will  sleep  in  the  room  of  mysteries,  if 
you  will  put  me  there.  It  matters  not  to  me  what  I  may  see  — 
all  outward  things  are  clothing ;  so  is  the  human  body.  I  will 
come ! " 

I  sat  down  on  the  wall  of  Copp's  Hill  Burying-ground,  after 
he  had  gone  toward  the  ferry. 

What  were  these  night  visions  I  had  been  seeing  ?  Was  my 
mind  clear,  or  had  I  been  subject  to  hallucinations  ?  If  a  new 
house  revealed  to  a  supersensitive  mind  the  same  phenomena 
as  have  so  many  times  been  recorded  of  an  old  one,  then  such 
things  must  be  matters  of  the  imagination  alone. 

I  was  mentally  disturbed.  I  went  to  a  lecture  in  Boston  that 
evening,  and  returned  to  my  place  on  the  Revere  hills,  over- 
looking the  sea. 

My  curious  talk  with  the  doctor  had  not  tended  to  quiet  my 
mind.  I  approached  the  house  with  a  secret  fear. 

My  aunt  met  me  at  the  door.  Her  unusually  calm  face  wore 
a  perplexed  look.  I  had  scarcely  been  seated  when  she  said : 


THE  JADE  BRICK  123 

"  Percy,  are  there  any  loose  bricks  in  the  house  ?  " 

"  No,  aunt ;  why  are  you  thinking  of  bricks  ?  " 

"  Percy,  I  don't  know.  It  is  all  very  strange  —  but  I  have 
a  feeling  as  of  bricks  out  of  place." 

Such  an  answer  under  other  circumstances  could  have  con- 
veyed no  meaning  to  my  mind.  But  I  understood  the  feeling, 
and  it  was  not  without  apprehension  that  I  took  my  light  and 
went,  that  beautiful  summer  night,  to  my  room. 

I  threw  myself  upon  the  bed.  The  strange  words  of  my  aunt 
disturbed  me.  1  had  not  yet  told  her  of  the  nightly  appear- 
ance in  my  room.  This  thought  gave  a  darker  shade  to  my 
apprehensions. 

The  air  was  still.  The  full  moon,  like  a  golden  night  sun, 
was  rising  over  the  waters  and  dark  islands.  The  revolving 
lights  in  the  ocean  way  caught  my  eye  as  I  sat  up  in  bed  and 
looked  through  the  window. 

My  room  had  two  windows.  One  of  them  commanded  a  far 
view  of  the  sea,  which,  in  Boston  Harbor,  is  like  a  floating  city. 
The  other  looked  down  the  hill  on  the  lovely  villas  and  green 
orchards  of  Revere. 

Under  the  hill  was  a  large,  tall-roofed  house,  black  with 
age,  that  may  still  be  seen.  It  is  one  of  the  oldest  houses  in 
America,  and  has  been  often  pictured  —  artists  love  it,  in  its 
solemn  decay.  It  had  never  been  painted ;  its  sides  seem  about 
to  drop  out  here  and  there,  but  it  holds  the  sturdy  old  New 
England  character.  I  think  that  the  house  is  associated  with 
old-time  merrymakings,  but  not  with  any  tradition  of  ghost 
lore.  It  has  great  historical  interest. 

Its  green  fields  and  orchards  have  a  tradition.  The  second 
battle  of  the  Revolution,  under  the  direction  of  General  Putnam, 
was  fought  on  Rumney  Marsh,  and  this  marsh  was  a  part  of 
that  wide  acreage  of  the  sea  lands  that  comprised  Chelsea,  and 
much  of  what  is  now  Revere  and  possibly  Winthrop.  The 


124  TRAVELLER  TALES  OF  CHINA 

tradition  is  that  the  ploughmen  have  found  cannon-balls  in  the 
fields.  Such  a  thing  would  not  be  unlikely,  as  the  battle  was 
between  a  small  war  vessel  and  a  fleet  of  boats  on  the  British 
side  and  General  Putnam's  soldiers  on  the  American  side. 
Putnam  himself  brought  with  him  two  cannon  to  the  borders  of, 
the  marshes.  He  captured  the  British  vessel,  and  caused  her 
to  be  burned.  In  this  engagement,  of  which  more  might  be 
made  in  history,  the  British  lost  twenty  men.  The  battle 
of  Rumney  Marsh  took  place  May  27,  1775.  General  Putnam 
gave  a  curious  account  of  it,  in  which  he  told  a  story  of  how  he 
waded  through  the  deep  mud  of  the  marsh ;  a  story  worthy 
of  companionship  with  his  adventure  with  the  wolf. 

It  is  said  that  the  house  was  used  for  the  storage  of  arms  and 
ammunition  after  the  fight  at  Lexington  and  Concord. 

I  turned  my  eyes  from  the  canting  sails  and  revolving  light 
afar  to  this  ancient  building.  How  dark  and  awesome  it  looked 
in  the  rising  moon  !  The  orchards  around  it  were  dripping  with 
dew,  and  glimmered.  The  serpentine  stream  at  the  foot  of  the 
gardens  and  meadows  seemed  like  curves  of  liquid  silver.  The 
chimney  rose  dark  against  the  moon  like  the  turret  of  a  fortress. 

I  dreamed  of  the  past.  People  had  settled  around  Rumney 
Marsh  before  Boston  was  founded.  A  Kidd  tradition  was  here, 
and  witch  tales  here  had  been  told  that  took  the  coloring  of  the 
lonely  salt  meadows. 

The  two  windows  were  open.  I  thought  a  shadow  passed 
before  the  sea  window,  but  the  room  did  not  become  luminous 
as  on  previous  occasions,  when  the  form  with  the  hammer  was 
about  to  appear.  Suddenly  I  heard  a  sound  that  caused  the 
veins  of  my  ears  to  throb. 

A  heavy  hammer  seemed  to  strike  the  bricks  of  the  chimney. 
A  crash,  as  it  seemed,  caused  the  house  to  tremble  and  the  brick 
chimney  to  rattle,  as  though  it  were  falling  from  the  middle 
part.  What  had  happened  ?  Had  the  chimney  fallen  ? 


THE  JADE  BRICK  125 

"  Percy  ?  " 

It  was  aunt's  voice. 

"  Percy  —  get  up  —  something  is  the  matter  with  the  bricks 
in  the  chimney.  I  have  heard  it  before  —  in  the  daytime.  The 
chimney  is  not  firm ;  it  is  settling ;  it  is  falling  down." 

This  explanation  gave  me  a  sense  of  relief.  It  offered  a  clew 
to  a  reasonable  solution  of  the  disturbances.  The  chimney  was 
new  —  the  mortar  had  not  hardened. 

"  I  will  go  and  look,"  said  I,  opening  the  door. 

I  lighted  the  lamp.  There  was  an  open  fireplace  in  the  room, 
and  I  went  to  it,  and  held  the  lamp  under  the  flue,  and  looked  up. 

There  came  a  whirr  of  swallows'  wings  that  sent  down  a 
shower  of  dust,  but  the  chimney  seemed  firm,  and  no  break  in 
it  appeared. 

"  I  see  nothing,"  I  said  to  my  aunt.  "  In  the  morning  I  will 
look  again." 

"  I  am  sorry  that  we  have  hired  this  house  for  all  summer," 
said  she.  "  Somehow,  Percy,  I  don't  seem  to  be  happy  here." 

The  week  passed  with  but  slight  disturbances.  Aunt  grew 
more  cheerful,  and  ordered  a  clam  and  fish  dinner  to  be  sent 
from  one  of  the  beach  houses  to  the  new  house  on  Independence 
Day. 

"  If  we  only  had  a  flag  I  would  hang  it  out  to-morrow,"  she 
said,  on  July  the  third.  "  The  scene  of  the  second  battle  of  the 
Revolution  ought  to  be  honored  on  that  day  with  a  flag  on  every 
house." 

"  I  expect  Doctor  Wintlehouse  to-night,"  I  said ;  "  perhaps 
we  will  find  some  bunting  at  the  beach  houses,  and  will  decorate 
the  new  house  to-morrow.  The  beaches  will  be  thronged  with 
people  all  day  of  the  Fourth.  There  will  be  fireworks  in  the 
evening  along  the  sea." 

"  It  will  be  dark  to-morrow  night,"  said  my  aunt ;  "  the  moon 
is  new.  Dark  nights  do  not  seem  to  be  so  still  here  as  others. 


126  TRAVELLER   TALES  OF  CHINA 

I  wish  the  doctor  were  here  now.  Caii't  we  persuade  him  to 
spend  the  summer  here  ?  " 

There  was  a  very  peculiar  sound  in  the  room.  A  hammer 
seemed  to  strike  a  brick,  and  the  bricks  to  break  and  fall. 

"  The  same  sound,"  said  aunt,  with  a  white  face.  "  There  is 
something  wrong  with  the  chimney." 

"  There  is  something  wrqng  with  our  imaginations,  aunt. 
The  doctor  will  set  us  all  right ! " 

There  followed  a  crash,  as  if  the  middle  of  the  chimney  had 
fallen  to  the  ground ;  as  if  the  middle  part  of  it  had  fallen  out 
and  down. 

"  We  are  followed,"  said  my  aunt. 

"  By  what  ? "  I  asked. 

"  I  do  not  know  —  I  do  wish  the  doctor  would  come.  Some- 
thing fell,  Percy." 

"  But  where  is  the  something  ?  " 

"  It  fell  out  and  down." 

"  But  it  did  not  harm  us,  and  nothing  unusual  is  to  be  seen." 

"  It  is  very  strange,"  said  my  aunt.  "  I  do  not  feel  as  though 
I  could  go  about  my  work  again.  Oh,  Percy,  let  us  go  away." 

"  I  am  taking  the  time  allotted  to  the  study  of  China,"  said 
the  old  merchant.  "  I  will  tell  you  the  rest  of  the  story  on 
another  evening."*  He  turned  to  Ah  Hue  and  said,  "  It  is  very 
curious." 

Ah  Hue's  face  brightened. 

"  I  can  see  through  the  mystery,"  he  said.  "  I  think  I  can. 
I  will  say  but  one  thing  now  —  opium  !  " 


CHAPTER  X. 


THE  suggestion  of  Ah  Hue  as  the  cause  of  the  mystery  of  the 
old  merchant's  strange  story  led  the  club  to  study  the  opium 
trade  of  China. 

It  was  found  that  the  green  brick  or  prayer- wheel  was  per- 
forated, and  it  was  also  learned  that  the  old  families  on  the  surf 
coast  had  a  tradition  of  two  Chinamen  who  had  landed  at  Boston, 
come  to  Rumney  Marsh,  and  who  had  disappeared,  and  that  a 
queer  old  man  of  doubtful  character  had  disappeared  or  died 
soon  after. 

"  Several  notable  events  happened,"  said  Mr.  Barnard, "  before 
the  opium  war,  or  when  China  would  not  allow  opium  to  be  entered 
into  China.  At  that  time  opium  in  China  was  very  costly,  and 
volumes  have  been  written  about  the  ways  that  were  taken  by 
the  fortune-loving  men  to  smuggle  opium  into  China.  Canes, 
the  handles  of  umbrellas,  paddings  of  limbs  and  muscles,  tops  of 
hats  and  bonnets,  everything  that  could  be  used  to  hide  the 
precious  drug,  and  elude  the  eye  of  the  mandarin,  was  em- 
ployed by  the  opium  smugglers.  It  would  not  be  stranger  than 
other  things  that  have  happened  were  Ah  Hue's  solution  of  the 
mystery  to  be  true.  It  is  my  purpose,  as  I  said,  to  follow  up 
the  mystery  in  Canton.  This  comes  the  nearest  to  being  a 
ghost  story  with  evidence  of  any  wonder  tale  that  I  have  ever 
heard.  But  all  things  follow  laws.  In  a  tale  like  this  it  is  only 
the  working  of  the  law  that  is  mysterious." 

The  beauty  of  Chinese  home  life  had  been  vividly  described  to 

127 


128  TRAVELLER  TALES  OF  CHINA 

the  Club,  and  Ah  Hue  had  made  a  home  in  China  a  lovely  thing 
to  the  fancy  of  its  members. 

The  enforcement  of  opium  on  China  by  the  British  govern- 
ment strongly  awoke  the  indignation  of  the  club. 

"  It  was  done  under  the  excuse  of  the  rights  of  trade,"  said 
Mr.  Barnard.  "  No  nation  has  any  moral  right  to  trade  with 
that  which  is  .ruinous  to  another  nation,"  he  continued ;  "  not 
more  in  opium  than  in  slaves." 

In  the  early  part  of  the  present  century,  the  Chinese  govern- 
ment began  to  expostulate  with  the  English  government  against 
the  bringing  of  opium  to  the  ports  of  China ;  the  use  of  opium, 
being  regarded  as  a  crime,  had  been  forbidden  by  law. 

In  1821,  the  governor  of  Canton  resolved  to  suppress  the 
traffic  in  opium,  and  ordered  all  ships  bringing  opium  to  depart 
from  the  port.  Thence  began  a  struggle  ending  in  war,  in  which 
Great  Britain,  without  respect  to  Chinese  law,  compelled  the 
ports  of  China  to  receive  opium. 

One  of  the  events  that  led  up  to  the  war  was  quite  dramatic. 

A  number  of  ships,  with  twenty  thousand  chests  of  opium  on 
board,  in  January,  1839,  lay  off  Canton.  The  Chinese  authorities 
refused  the  bringing  of  the  drug  into  the  port.  The  English 
merchants  protested  against  this  refusal.  It  was  decided  that 
the  cargoes  should  be  delivered  over  to  the  emperor  and  sent  to 
him.  He  destroyed  the  opium  entire.  The  act  was  like  the 
throwing  overboard  of  the  taxed  tea  in  Boston  Harbor. 

War  followed  acts  like  these,  and  it  ended  in  compelling  the 
Chinese  government  to  pay  for  the  opium  destroyed,  and  to  open 
five  ports  to  the  trade. 

The  ruinous  habit  of  opium  smoking  now  spread  over  China, 
greatly  to  the  injury  of  Christian  missions,  as  the  free  use  of 
opium  was  attributed  to  the  injustice  of  a  Christian  country. 
The  religion  of  a  country  who  would  tempt  a  great  people  to 
crime  and  moral  and  physical  ruin  for  gain,  lost  conviction,  to 


THE  JADE  BRICK  131 

these  Chinese,  who  did  not  value  truth  for  its  own  worth,  or  see 
that  religion  in  its  purity  would  preclude  the  use  of  opium,  and 
of  the  opium  trade. 

The  most  unselfish  missionary  efforts  have  had  to  contend 
against  this  wrong-doing  on  the  part  of  those  who  have  misrep- 
resented its  spirit.  The  act  of  England  has  brought  the  religion 
of  England  into  discredit  among  the  Chinese  viceroys  and  man- 
darins. All  that  may  be  said  against  the  traffic  in  opium  may 
also  be  said  of  the  commerce  in  intoxicating  liquors.  A  nation 
has  no  moral  right  to  traffic  in  evil,  and  any  nation  that  allows 
such  traffic  does  it  to  its  own  detriment  by  the  laws  of  moral 
gravitation  which  no  human  powers  can  ultimately  resist. 


THE  JADE   BRICK   (CONTINUED) 

AT  the  next  meeting  of  the  club,  the  old  tea  merchant  con- 
tinued his  strange  story.  All  the  members  were  present  at  an 
early  hour  to  hear  it.  The  peculiar  mystery  of  the  narrative 
had  interested  all,  and  Ah  Hue's  word  "  opium  "  had  intensified 
their  interest. 

He  took  up  the  narrative  thus  : 

Doctor  Wintlehouse  came.  He  was  told  of  the  strange  sounds 
that  continued  to  be  heard  in  the  chimney. 

It  was  a  dark  night.  It  rained  gently  but  steadily.  A  little 
past  nine  o'clock  Doctor  Wintlehouse  went  to  his  room,  and 
I  followed  him  there  and  left  there  a  well-filled  lamp  and  a  box 
of  matches. 

He  went  directly  to  the  fireplace  in  the  chimney,,  and  set  down 
the  lamp  under  the  flue.  He  crawled  into  the  fireplace  and 
looked  up  the  chimney. 

"  Percy,"  he  said,  "  has  there  ever  been  a  fire  made  here  ?  " 

"  Not  since  we  have  been  here." 


132  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

"  Percy,  there  are  black  bricks  in  the  chimney  —  how  came 
they  here  ?  " 

"  I  cannot  tell,  doctor." 

"  The  black  bricks  are  large,  such  as  used  to  be  made  a  gener- 
ation ago.  Bricklayers  do  not  use  such  bricks  as  those  now.  I 
can  see.  The  chimney  is  full  of  them,  old  bricks  among  the 
new." 

In  the  morning  the  doctor  said  : 

"  I  heard  a  tapping  and  a  click  last  night  —  nothing  more. 
Who  was  the  bricklayer  ?  " 

"  Marvin." 

"  Let  us  go  and  talk  with  him." 

We  found  Marvin  under  the  'trees  by  the  smoke-house. 

After  some  holiday  talk,  Doctor  Wintlehouse  spoke  to  Marvin 
about  the  smoke-house,  whose  ruin  was  run  over  by  "  bouncing 
Bet.*' 

"  They  used  to  say  that  the  smoke-house  was  haunted,"  said 
Marvin.  "  There  were  some  curious  bricks  in  it  taken  from  the 
old  mill  house." 

The  doctor  showed  an  instant  interest, 

"  Tell  me  about  the  bricks,"  said  he. 

"  It  was  this  way.  The  mill  house  became  very  old,  like  the 
one  that  you  may  see  over  yonder,  and  the  owner  concluded 
that  it  had  better  come  down.  So  he  had  the  frame  taken 
down,  leaving  the  chimney  like  a  tower.  There  was  a  great 
bulge  in  the  chimney,  and  the  thing  looked  curious  under  the 
moon,  and  used  to  frighten  people  o'  nights.  The  owner, 
Mr.  Maverick,  of  the  Noodle  Island  Mavericks,  he  sent  for 
me  one  day  to  take  down  the  remains  of  the  chimney,  and  he 
said  that  if  I  wanted  any  of  the  bricks  I  might  have  them.  I 
told  him  that  I  would  like  to  have  enough  to  build  a  smoke-house. 

"  Well,  it  was  this  way.  When  I  came  to  the  bulge  in  the 
chimney,  where  the  purple  bricks  were,  I  found  a  covert  there, 


THE  JADE   BRICK  133 

and  a  little  room,  and  under  the  floor  of  the  room  were  some 
boards,  and  under  the  boards,  as  sure  as  you  are  livin',  were 
two  anatomies.  The  little  room  all  tumbled  out  and  down 
with  a  crash." 

"  Two  what  ? "  asked  the  doctor,  with  the  face  of  a  juryman. 
"  Two  what,  did  you  say  ? " 

"  Two  skeletons. 

"  You  see,  it  was  this  way :  these  anatomies  had  been  there 
for  a  generation.  How  it  had  all  happened,  no  one  could  tell 
—  there  were  no  doctors  about  in  those  days.  We  kind  o' 
associate  dead  people  with  doctors,  you  know." 

The  doctor  smiled,  even  in  the  study  of  occult  mysteries. 

"  Mr.  Marvin,  who  were  these  people  ? " 

"  The  anatomies  ?  No  one  ever  knew.  The  finding  of  'em 
was  a  mystery.  It  scared  the  women  folks  around  here  con- 
siderable. No  persons  had  been  known  to  have  disappeared  in 
this  place.  But  these  two  people  must  have  come  to  the  mill 
house  in  the  flesh,  and  they  left  their  bones  there.  There  was 
foul  play  somewhere,  or  something  was  wrong,  else  their  bodies 
would  not  have  been  concealed  in  that  way. 

"  Something  strange  happened  in  connection  with  these 
things.  People  used  to  speak  of  it  afterward." 

"  —  What  ?  "  asked  the  doctor,  all  nerves  and  excitement. 

"  Well,  it  was  this  way :  many  years  before  my  time  there 
lived  in  this  same  house,  on  the  Rumney  meadows,  a  very 
strange  kind  of  a  man.  He  had  a  crooked  back.  He  used  to 
wander  about  the  premises  nights,  as  though  he  was  in  a  great 
hurry,  repairing  fences  and  outbuildings  and  the  mill  wheel 
with  a  great  hammer.  His  name  was  Pool.  They  called  him 
Captain  Pool. 

"  Well,  the  captain  died,  and  it  was  this  way :  the  people  of 
the  mill  used  to  hear  his  hammer  o'  nights,  just  as  it  sounded 
when  he  was  livin'.  Now  it  isn't  altogether  agreeable  to  hear 


134  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

a  hammer  goin'  o'  nights.  And  my  old  wife  here,  she's  no- 
tional, she  got  a  queer  idea  into  her  head  that  made  me  trouble 
at  one  time,  —  she  used  to  think  that  she  could  hear  the  same 
Captain  Pool  pounding  on  the  bricks  in  the  smoke-house,  in  still 
nights  and  stormy  weather.  She  kept  dingin'  at  me  to  have 
the  smoke-house  taken  down,  and  she  wouldn't  use  it  any 
more.  So  I  let  it  go  into  decay,  but  she  wanted  me  to  have 
the  bricks  sent  away.  I  gave  the  masons  some  of  them  to  pul 
into  your  house  over  there,  under  the  flue." 

We  came  away.     The  doctor  related  the  story  to  my  aunt. 

"  Doctor  Wintlehouse,"  said  the  latter,  "  we  must  move 
away." 

"  No,"  said  he,  in  a  decisive  tone,  "  you  will  never  be  dis- 
turbed again.  Mark  my  words,  the  house,  hereafter,  will  be 
perfectly  quiet ;  you  will  never  be  disturbed  again." 

We  continued  to  live  in  the  new  house.  Nothing  trouble- 
some was  seen  or  heard  after  that  Independence  Day. 

A  year  passed.  I  chanced  to  meet  the  doctor  one  day  in 
Lynn. 

"  You  were  no  more  troubled  with  strange  sights  and  sounds 
after  that  day,  were  you  ?  "  he  asked,  referring  to  the  Fourth  of 
July  on  Rumney  Marsh. 

"  No.  Doctor,  how  did  you  bring  to  an  end  those  mysterious 
things?" 

"  By  suggestion." 

The  interest  in  this  strange  narrative  had  become  intense. 

Ah  Hue  arose  calmly,  and  said  : 

"  This  jade  box  is  a  prayer  charm. 

"  The  other  green  bricks  were  jade,  but  were  thin  and 
hollow.  They  broke  in  a  new  chimney. 

"  The  two  men  whose  bodies  were  found  were  Chinamen. 
They  came  to  America  on  returning  ships  that  had  carried  out 
ginseng.  They  brought  money  with  them.  Their  purpose  was  to 


THE  JADE  BRICK  135 

fill  the  thin  jade  boxes,  which  you  call  bricks,  with  opium,  and 
to  return  to  China  under  the  American  flag.  Smuggling  was 
severely  tried  in  courts  and  punished  at  that  time.  All  the 
'bricks,'  or  boxes,  look  like  charm  boxes,  or  prayer- wheels. 

"  Xow  do  you  wish  for  a  proof  of  a  part  of  what  I  say  ? 

"  Listen." 

He  held  up  the  jade  box,  and  said : 

«  It  clicks  !  " 

He  turned  it  to  a  current  of  air.  There  was  a  whirring 
sound.  Suddenly  it  clicked. 

"  This  is  your  hammer  stroke,"  said  Ah  Hue.  "  When  a 
wheel  has  turned  a  certain  number  of  times,  it  clicks  several 
times.  In  a  wall  of  a  house,  in  the  night,  the  click  would 
reverberate  and  sound  loud." 

The  old  merchant  lifted  his  hands,  and  said  : 

"  I  believe  there  is  a  cause  for  everything." 

"  But,"  said  Ah  Hue,  "  this  box  is  marked  with  a  Canton 
hong.  I  once  heard  a  tale  of  two  Chinamen  who  came  to 
America  and  never  returned.  It  was  a  hong  tale.  Let  me 
have  the  brick,  and  when  we  arrive  at  Canton,  let  us  try  to 
make  this  strange  story  clear." 

The  old  tea  merchant  gave  the  jade  box  to  Ah  Hue. 

"  I  wish  to  trace  the  story  of  the  brick,"  said  Mr.  Barnard, 
"  for  my  own  satisfaction." 

"  And  I,"  said  Charlie. 

"  And  I,"  said  Lou,  and  all. 

The  interest  of  the  Club  in  China  grew  on  hearing  of  these 
many  mysteries.  The  most  interesting  studies  are  these  that 
lead  us  to  an  intense  desire  to  learn  more. 


CHAPTER  XL 
THE  TRADE  CITIES 

"  I  HAVE  been  planning  a  rather  novel  excursion  for  the  boys," 
said  Mr.  Barnard  to  his  wife  one  day.  "  I  wish  the  boys  to 
visit  the  old  and  new  trade  cities  of  the  world.  I  have  con- 
cluded not  to  go  until  midsummer,  so  that  we  may  visit  the  old 
Russian  fair  of  Nijni-Novgorod.  One  meets  three  nations  there 
at  once,  as  we  have  been  told.  I  would  go  by  the  way  of  Liver- 
pool, the  ship  city,  with  its  seven  miles  of  docks,  where  is  the 
place  to  study  commerce  ;  Antwerp  and  Holland,  Berlin,  Mos- 
cow, Nijni-Novgorod,  and  thence  to  Manchuria,  Pekin,  Canton, 
Hong-Kong,  and  Manila." 

"  Let  Lucy  and  me  go  with  you,"  said  Mrs.  Barnard. 

Mr.  Barnard  looked  surprised. 

"  But  this  is  not  a  woman's  journey ;  not  one  for  Lucy." 

"  And  why  not  ?  Why  should  not  an  American  girl  study 
geography,  and  history,  and  the  living  world  on  its  own  new  field  ? 
Do  you  notice  what  an  interest  Lucy  takes  in  the  Buddhist 
stories  ?  It  would  be  a  history  lesson  for  her  to  visit  Russia 
and  China,  —  a  history  lesson  of  two  thousand  years. 

"  Why  should  I  wish  to  go,  do  you  ask  ?  Well,  you  know  I 
have  been  placed  on  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  and  I  wish  to 
see  what  other  cities  are  doing  in  the  same  line  of  work.  I 
would  visit  Gheel,  where  the  insane  are  cared  for,  by  letting  them 
go  free.  I  would  see  the  world  of  Tolstoi,  and,  if  possible,  I 
would  meet  Li  Hung  Chang  again.  You  remember  that  I  pre- 

136 


THE   TRADE   CITIES  139 

sided  at  a  banquet  given  to  him  in  part  by  women  when  he  was 
in  New  York.  He  invited  me  to  meet  him  in  China,  personally 
invited  me,  and  promised  me  that  he  would  show  me  his  plans 
for  the  education  of  the  poor." 

Lucy  had  long  been  talking  as  though  she  expected  to  make 
this  journey  —  the  girl  had  so  read  and  studied  that  this  new 
way  of  travel  made  other  routes  seem  certain.  Liverpool, 
Gheel,  Nijni,  the  Trans-Siberian  R.  R.,  Manchuria,  Corea,  —  she 
dreamed  of  all  these  famous  centres  of  world  life,  —  they  were 
new  dreams,  or  dreams  of  new  suggestions.  It  was  not  old 
Liverpool,  or  Gheel,  or  Nijni  Novgorod  that  she  most  wished  to 
see,  but  the  world's  new  life  in  these  old  centres. 

Mr.  Barnard  was  silent.  A  new  field  for  the  education  of  his 
whole  family,  as  well  as  for  his  own  son  Charles  and  for  Louis 
Forbes,  opened  before  him. 

"  Wife,"  he  said,  "  I  see  your  plan  in  its  true  light.  I  wish 
you  and  Lucy  to  go  with  me.  You  and  Lucy  are  to  study  chari- 
.ties,  and  the  boys  and  I,  trade.  We  shall  have  a  most  intelligent 
instructor  in  Ah  Hue-Ling  at  the  great  fair,  and  in  the  East. 
We  will  all  go.  This,  then,  shall  be  our  journey  —  around  the 
world  by  the  great  port  cities  and  Russia.  We  will  go  to 
Liverpool  on  a  trade  steamer, —  one  of  the  ten  thousand  ton 
cattle-steamers,  —  fare,  thirty  dollars  each  to  Liverpool,  not  for 
the  sake  of  economy,  but  for  education." 

In  midsummer  the  party  left  Boston,  as  they  had  planned,  on 
one  of  the  colossal  freight  and  cattle  steamers.  This  vessel's 
service  was  as  good  as  the  best  steamers  would  have  been  only  a 
few  years  ago,  before  the  days  of  the  City  of  Rome.  Her  sleeping- 
rooms  were  amidships  in  a  kind  of  castle,  and  her  table  was  as 
substantial  as  that  of  a  working  people's  hotel.  It  was  ten  days, 
on  an  unusually  calm  sea,  before  the  cattle  began  to  smell  land 
and  to  low.  The  ship  was  very  steady  —  the  freight  was  so 


140  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

heavy.  There  was  no  rolling  or  pitching;  no  canting,  —  the 
voyage  was  like  a  moving  hotel  of  working  people  on  a  Sunday. 

Liverpool,  with  Victoria's  tower,  appeared  at  last.  Here  was 
the  city  of  the  oceans.  The  party  took  apartments  in  a  sea 
captains'  hotel.  Mr.  Barnard,  Charles,  Louis,  and  Ah  Hue  went 
to  London  and  Southampton.  Mrs.  Barnard  and  Lucy  visited 
the  poet  country  near  Liverpool,  —  the  English  Lake  District  of 
Cumberland  and  Westmoreland,  where  they  saw  the  graves 
of  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge  at  Grasmere,  and  the  home  of 
Ruskin  at  Coneston. 

Mrs.  Barnard  began  her  studies  of  the  neglected  people  of  the 
world  on  the  voyage  to  Liverpool.  She  visited  the  stokers  on 
board  of  the  ship,  —  a  class  of  humanity  for  whom  no  one  seems 
to  care. 

She  found  an  English  stoker  in  the  furnace  room  who  had 
been  in  the  battle  of  Santiago.  He  told  her  a  story  that  went 
to  her  heart,  and  she  put  it  into  verse. 


THE   DEMOCRACY   OE 


"  THEY  are  shouting  for  Santiago. 

Says  the  Chaplain  :  '  Saint  James  is  ours!' 
Down  falls  the  flag  of  four  hundred  years ; 

Up  leaps  the  flag  of  a  thousand  years, 

On  the  old  sun-painted  towers ! 

All  white  as  snow,  the  marines,  in  a  row, 

Are  cheering  the  flag  as  it  leaps  to  the  sun ; 

While,  black  with  soot,  we  stand  below, 

Young  Jack  and  I,  where  the  west  winds  blow. 
We  shovel  the  coals  on  the  sea : 

We  shovel  the  coals,  —  stoke,  stoke ;  stoke,  stoke ; 


THE  DEMOCRACY   OF  HONOR  141 

With  faces  as  black  as  our  world  of  the  coals, 
And  we  go  to  the  posts  of  companionless  souls, 
And  o'er  us  the  mighty  ship  thunders  and  rolls 

And  I  think  of  Jack  and  he  thinks  of  me ! 

We  shovel  the  coals  on  the  sea ! 

ii. 

"  They  are  shouting  for  Santiago, 

All  the  white  marines  in  a  row ; 

And  my  heart  leaps  out  in  that  right  proud  shout, 

As  I  stand  at  the  rail  below. 

On  that  Sunday  morn,  when  they  stood  by  their  guns, 

/  swung  the  shovel  true,  — 

Stoke,  stoke ;  stoke,  stoke ;  like  a  man  on  a  rack :  — 

With  a  spray  of  water  Jack  cooled  my  back, 

And  my  heart  is  warm  for  that  deed  of  Jack. 

How  strong  my  muscles  grew ! 

The  sea  was  fever,  the  sky  was  h're  ; 

A  lightning's  message  came  down  the  wire 

From  the  engine's  brain :   l  Stoke,  stoke ;  stoke,  stoke ! ' 

And  every  sinew  that  word  awoke, 

As  I  shovelled  the  coals  on  the  sea. 
How  the  battle-ship  thundered  and  cleft  the  main, 
And  drove  on  the  rocks  the  ships  of  Spain, 
Like  vultures  lost  in  sulphurous  rain !  — 
I  shovel  the  coals  on  the  sea ! 

in. 

"An  English  stoker  from  Birkenhead, — 

A  stoker  is  all  I  can  be  : 
The  tides  will  rise  and  the  tides  will  fall, 
And  glimmer  the  lights  on  the  far  sea-wall 

At  Cape  Maysi  6r  on  the  Dee ; 
But  I  shovel  the  coals :  stoke,  stoke,  stoke ! 

All  the  windy  day  on  the  sea ! 


142  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

And  strange  feet  corne  and  strange  feet  go, 
But  no  face  descends  to  niy  furnace,  —  oh,  no !  — 
To  say  I  am  one  of  the  world.     Ho !  Jack,  true  Jack ! 
When  my  veins  ran  red  you  cooled  my  back, 

And  I  stoked  like  a  tar  of  the  Queen's; 
See !  angels  have  caught  the  flag  in  the  sky ! 
Hear  the  shouts  of  the  men,  as  the  ships  go  by ! 

Let  us  shout  with  the  white  marines ; 
Let  us  shout  with  the  men,  if  our  hands  are  black,  — 
Jack,  Jack,  we  are  men :  —  stands  the  Admiral  there, 
The  winds  of  Cape  Maysi's  tide  lifting  his  hair ! 
The  land  breeze  is  free,  the  freshening  tide  runs, 
He  is  cheering  the  men  who  stood  by  the  guns ; 
The  officers  cheer  them,  — now,  Jack,  let  us  cheer: 
1  Hurrah  for  the  flag  of  Old  Glory  unfurled, 

To  stand  for  all  nations  and  welcome  the  world!' 
Shout.     Let  all  the  officers  hear !  — 
'  Hurrah  and  hurrah  ."     Say,  Jack,  do  you  see 

The  officers  stare  ?     They  heard  our  shout  rise  ! 

From  the  flag  to  our  hands  drop  the  Admiral's  eyes! 
And,  Jack,  he  is  bowing,  with  hand  light  and  free ; 
He  is  bowing  to  you,  he  is  bowing  to  me  f 
We  stood  back  of  the  men  who  stood  by  the  guns, 
In  the  heat  that  was  fiercer  than  tropical  suns; 
Were  ever  two  stokers  so  honored  as  we ! " 


IV. 

And  the  ships  shouted  "  Santiago  ! " 
And  the  flags  filled  the  heavens  with  flowers 

Where  down  fell  the  flag  of  four  hundred  years. 

And  up  went  the  flag  for  a  thousand  years, 
On  the  old  sun-painted  towers. 
One  band  then  "  America  "  played, 

As  it  passed  the  new  flag  of  the  sun, 
And  "God  Save  the  Queen"  played  another, 


THE  DEMOCRACY  OF  HONOR 

In  the  cool  of  the  palms ;  and  Jack  took  the  hand 
Of  the  stoker;  and  tears  made  white 
A  line  on  his  face  in  the  sunset  light, 

As  he  caught  the  air  of  his  native  land 

And  saifl  to  his  sailor  brother,  — 
"  Now,  both  of  the  tunes  are  one  1 " 


CHAPTER   XII. 
THE   OPIUM   SMOKER 

LIVERPOOL  has  one  hundred  institutions  of  charity.  Such 
represent  the  old  sailors'  hearts,  for  sailors  are  all  brothers,  and 
all  love  their  comrades  of  the  sea. 

Mrs.  Barnard  visited  one  of  these  charities  for  seafaring  men 
with  the  captain  of  the  huge  traffic  ship  on  which  they  had 
crossed  the  ocean.  She  then  chanced  to  behold  a  sight  that 
caused  her  heart  to  ache,  and  to  see  what  the  effects  of  the  opium 
trade  had  been,  not  only  on  the  poor,  weak,  overtempted  China- 
man, but  upon  a  young  Englishman  who,  in  the  China  trade, 
had  fallen  a  slave  to  the  seductive  and  subtile  drug. 

They  were  passing  through  a  ward  of  incurables  when  the 
captain  stopped,  lifted  his  hands,  and  said,  "  Is  it  possible  ?  " 

A  white,  gaunt  face  hid  itself  in  the  pillows.  Then  it  turned, 
and  looked  at  the  captain  furtively.  The  lips  were  white,  and 
the  colour  of  the  skin  was  like  tan. 

"  The  doctor  says  that  I  cannot  live,"  said  the  man. 

"  You  have  been  an  adventurer,"  said  the  captain ;  "  tell  me, 
in  a  word,  the  secret  of  your  life." 

"  Opium,"  said  the  patient.  "  I  learned  the  habit  on  a  ship 
which  my  father  commanded.  It  led  me  to  crime  ;  I  wandered 
over  the  world  trying  to  break  the  habit ;  I  became  a  gambler ; 
I  was  schooled  in  crime ;  I  reformed,  and  now  I  am  going  out 
—  pray,  when  you  think  of  me." 

The  captain  turned  away.     "  I  will  tell  you  that  man's  story 

144 


THE  DEAF  AND  DUMB  MAN  147 

on  the  docks  this  evening,"  said  he  to  Mrs.  Barnard,  "  after  your 
family  returns.  I  have  seen  in  him  what  the  demon  of  opium 
may  do." 

That  evening  the  captain  entertained  the  party  in  a  little 
garden  near  the  docks,  when  he  told  the  following  tale  of  the 
son  of  an  English  captain  of  an  opium  smuggling  ship,  in 
the  days  before  the  opium  war. 


THE   DEAF   AND    DUMB   MAN 

The  Recoleta  of  Buenos  Ayres  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
fields  of  the  dead  in  all  the  world.  It  is  a  city  of  marble 
temples,  whose  doors  stand  open  to  reverent  feet,  —  temples 
whose  lights  shine  before  crosses,  and  of  flowers  which  send  out 
their  perfumes  before  the  sculptured  altars  that  coffin  the  dead. 
It  is  one  of  the  few  places  on  earth  where  the  imagination 
pictures  it  beautiful  to  be  dead. 

I  was  looking  for  the  tomb  of  SarmientOj  the  great  educa- 
tional President  of  Argentina,  among  the  checkered  streets  of 
glimmering  marbles,  when  I  first  met  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man. 
He  was  tall,  and  had  a  fixed,  determined  look,  and  was  walking 
alone.  There  was  a  yellow  color  on  his  face  that  suggested  to 
me  that  he  was  a  victim  of  a  destroying  habit. 

I  asked  him  for  direction  to  the  state  tomb  of  Sarmiento. 
He  looked  abstracted,  his  mind  was  intent  elsewhere.  He 
simply  said,  "  No  se,  senor"  and  walked  on.  His  eyes  had  fallen 
full  upon  me,  yet  he  had  evidently  not  seen  me,  and  could 
not  identify  me ;  he  passed  me  as  a  rolling  statue  might  have 
been  carried  by. 

Every  man  has  his  atmospheric  self.  This  man  had ;  it  was 
one  of  mystery,  and  it  chilled  the  balmy  air  to  my  inner  sense 
and  gave  a  mental  shadow  to  the  sunshine.  I  stopped  and 


148  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

marked  him  as  he  ambled  along.  I  said  to  myself,  that  man 
has  become  a  criminal  through  opium. 

One  of  the  local  police  of  Buenos  Ayres  crossed  the  white 
marbled  walks  in  the  city  of  the  dead.  The  organ  in  the  great 
funeral  church  of  the  cemetery  was  pouring  its  music  through 
the  half-open  windows.  I  knew  that  a  funeral  service  was 
closing.  The  policeman  was  wending  his  way  to  an  open  tomb, 
near  which  immortelles  and  living  flowers  lay  in  a  memorial 
mound. 

The  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man  caught  the  sound  of  the  policeman's 
step.  He  stopped  and  whirled  around,  seemed  disturbed  by  the 
sight  of  the  officer  of  the  law,  when  there  shot  from  his  eye  a 
gleam  of  inner  light,  soul  light,  astral  light,  wannish,  stealthy, 
furtive.  This  inward  light  is  usually  only  seen  in  a  side  glance. 
I  saw  it,  and  I  was  sure  that  there  was  a  consciousness  of  wrong, 
I  believed  of  crime,  in  the  man's  heart.  And  yet,  behind  the 
life  mystery,  conscience  lived. 

The  bell  tolled  amid  the  waving  trees  in  the  bright  clear 
sun.  Plumed  horses  and  a  grand  funeral  car  bore  a  body 
from  the  odorous  church  to  the  white  cemetery,  and  I  lost 
sight  of  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man.  But  the  half-lurid  gleam 
of  soul  light,  that  only  a  soul  discolored  by  evil  could  cast. 
haunted  me.  I  had  seen  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man,  but  he 
had  not  seen  me  except  as  a-  something  passing  by.  I  would 
know  him  elsewhere  in  the  world ;  he  would  be  certain  not  to 
recognize  me. 

I  met  the  man  again.  It  was  at  a  missionary  prayer-meetinsr 
in  Buenos  Ayres.  He  was  not  the  same  man  as  before.  Tln-iv 
was  an  elevated  look  in  his  face  which  held  me.  His  features 
seemed  to  be  lighted  up  by  some  beneficent  mood,  like  an 
inwardly  lighted  vase  of  alabaster.  The  sinister  look  was  gone. 
He  was  speaking ;  his  subject  was  "  Christian  Growth."  The 
more  earnest  he  became,  the  more  luminous  was  his  face.  !!<• 


THE   DEAF  AND  DUMB   MAN  149 

beamed  upon  his  hearers  as  he  ended  with  a  quotation  from 
San  Martin, — 

"  Seras  lo  que  debes  ser 
Y  sino,  no  seras  nada,"  — 

which  may  be  translated,  "  Thou  must  be  that  which  thou 
oughtest  to  be,  and  without  that  thou  shalt  be  nothing." 

The  lights  in  the  little  hall  where  he  had  been  speaking  went 
out.  He  stood  at  the  door.  I  stopped  near  him  and  watched 
him  there. 

The  streets  were  flowing  with  tides  of  the  people.  Saloons 
glittered,  and  over  the  way  was  a  gambling-hall,  through  whose 
dusky  atmospheres  were  drifting  the  enchantments  of  the 
haunting  airs  of  old  Italian  operas. 

He  spoke  to  me  and  said : 

"  It  is  a  gay  night  that  they  have  over  there." 

His  face  changed.  The  spiritual  look  vanished,  and  a  dark 
shadow  as  of  a  suffusion  of  black  blood  seemed  to  obliterate  the 
transfiguration.  Another  spirit  looked  from  his  eyes ;  had  I 
seen  him  only  at  that  moment  I  would  have  suspected  him  of 
being  a  very  dangerous  adventurer  or  gambler. 

He  watched  the  lights  in  the  hall,  heard  the  music  of  "  How 
so  Fair,"  and  the  blood  in  his  face  grew  darker.  The  face  I 
had  seen  in  the  Recoleta  came  back  again,  —  dark,  brooding, 
deep,  and  evil. 

It  was  all  as  if  a  good  angel  had  gone  out  of  the  heart  of 
life,  and  an  evil  one  had  taken  its  place  and  looked  out  of  the 
windows  of  the  eyes  upon  the  world.  I  could  see  that  some 
strange  conflict  was  going  on  within  him.  He  shuffled  away, 
the  dark  spirit  in  his  face.  Then  he  turned  and  looked  back, 
his  face  lighter  again  : 

"  Vaya  V  con  Deos"  he  said  (Go  you  with  God). 

I  felt  that  I  had  met  two  men,  —  not  a  Doctor  Jekyll  and 
Mr.  Hyde,  but  a  man  led  at  times  by  high  ideals,  and  at  times 


150  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

yielding  to  some  hereditary  evil.  Buenos  Ayres  at  that  time 
was  a  sorry  school  for  a  man  like  that.  His  face  was  capable 
of  being  fashioned  to  the  mood  of  his  soul ;  some  persons'  are. 

As  distinctly  as  I  had  marked  him  at  this  second  meeting,  he 
had  not  as  yet  seen  me  so' as  to  take  me  into  his  consciousness. 
He  would  never  recognise  me  again  on  account  of  speaking  to 
him  in  the  white  graveyard,  or  of  my  meeting  him  in  the 
shadow. 

Had  I  met  a  very  mysterious  criminal,  or  had  I  had  a  glimpse 
of  the  struggle  of  a  soul  ? 

There  was  one  low  Chinese  resort  in  the  city.  I  saw  this 
man  of  mystery  going  toward  it.  In  China,  the  keeper  of  such 
a  place  would  have  been  condemned  by  a  mardarin  to  the 
bamboo  or  rack. 

I  was  at  Southampton  waiting  to  sail  for  New  York  on  one 
of  the  ocean  palaces.  It  was  late  in  summer,  and  I  lingered 
about  the  docks  and  the  old  ivied  city  walls  for  several  days, 
waiting  for  the  American  flag  to  rise  over  the  consulate  and 
announce  the  arrival  of  the  steamer  on  which  I  had  booked 
to  sail.  I  went  to  the  Isle  of  Wight,  to  Osborne  House,  to 
Farringford,  Ventnor,  and  the  Charities. 

On  returning  to  my  hotel  one  evening,  I  found  an  American 
party  of  tourists  who  were  booked  to  sail  on  the  same  steamer 
as  myself.  Among  them  was  a  very  beautiful  and  light-hearted 
girl  named  Antoinette  Aubey,  whose  brother  had  been  a  com- 
panion of  mine  at  a  mercantile  school. 

She  greeted  me  heartily. 

"  So  you  are  here,"  .said  she,  "  and  I  am  glad  to  meet  you, 
for  now  I  will  have  a  friend." 

"  I  am  glad  to  meet  the  sister  of  one  with  whom  I  have 
shared  happy  hours,"  said  I.  "  I  am  waiting  for  the  flag  to  rise 
over  the  consulate." 


THE  DEAF  AND   DUMB   MAN  153 

"  It  is  there  now,"  she  said.  "  We  received  a  despatch 
of  the  coming  of  the  ship  a  few  hours  ago  in  London. 
But  the  ship  is  not  to  sail  until  day  after  to-morrow.  Our 
party  is  going  to  Netley  Abbey  to-morrow.  Will  you  join 
us?" 

"  I  should  be  glad  to  go  with  you  to  see  the  poetic  old  ruin  of 
which  I  have  seen  many  pictures." 

"  I  shall  be  glad  to  have  your  friendship  on  the  return  voy- 
age," she  continued.  "  My  brother  arranged  this  trip  for  me,  — 
I  have  been  to  Geneva,  —  and  he  put  me  into  the  keeping  of  the 
captain  of  the  steamer,  whom  he  knew.  This  captain,  whose 
name  is  Wright,  is  a  very  fatherly,  silent  man,  and  he  kept 
saying  something  to  me  on  the  outward  voyage  that  has  haunted 
me.  It  is  this,  '  Make  no  acquaintances  with  strangers.'  The 
words  may  seem  commonplace  enough  to  you  as  I  quote  them, 
but  if  you  were  to  hear  him  utter  them,  slowly,  as  if  they  had 
some  strange  import,  you  would  not  wonder  that  I  repeat  them. 
As  we  were  being  tugged  out  of  New  York,  he  left  the  wheel- 
house,  and  came  and  stood  by  me  on  the  deck  and  said :  '  You 
are  an  American  girl,  and  free-spirited ;  you  are  travelling 
alone  ;  make  no  acquaintances  with  strangers.'  I  thanked  him, 
for  my  brother  had  asked  him  to  give  me  needed  advice.  But 
he  treated  me  like  a  child. 

"  I  was  ill  at  sea  for  a  couple  of  days ;  then  my  spirits 
returned,  and  I  mingled  freely  with  the  other  passengers,  and 
made  friends  of  everybody  without  other  than  a  passenger-list 
introduction. 

"  One  night  the  captain  passed  me  on  deck.  He  lifted  his 
hat.  I  looked  for  him  to  smile,  but  his  face  was  serious.  He 
looked  me  full  in  the  face  and  said  :  '  Miss  Aubey,  you  are 
going  abroad  for  the  first  time ;  the  world  is  new  to  you ;  make 
no  intimate  acquaintances  with  strangers  on  shipboard  without 
coming  to  me.  Pardon  me,  I  have  seen  more  of  the  world  than 


154  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

you,  and  have  had  more  experience.  Your  brother  asked  me  to 
be  a  father  to  you.' 

**  He  was  as  a  father  to  me.  He  gave  me  a  place  at  his  table. 
He  advised  me  in  regard  to  my  trip  to  the  Continent,  and  when 
he  parted  from  me  at  the  window  of  the  wheel-house,  he  said : 
*  I  feel  a  little  concern  for  you ;  make  no  intimate  acquaintances 
with  strangers.' 

"  Those  words,  '  a  little  concern,'  haunt  me.  I  am  careful 
about  my  conduct,  or  try  to  be.  You  know  what  my  life  has 
been,  a  prudent  one.  The  church  circle  has  been  my  society, 
and  I  worked  in  the  rescue  missions  without  a  thought  of  harm. 
I  have  been  making  the  acquaintance  of  strangers  since  I  left 
Yassar,  and  I  never  so  much  as  thought  of  danger.  Do  you 
think  that  the  fatherly  captain  thought  me  wanting  in  judgment  ?" 

"  He  is  an  English  captain,  I  am  told,  and  such  men  are 
noted  for  being  very  discerning.  They  see  perils  that  do  not 
come  from  sea.  Your  brother  placed  you  wisely." 

The  party  went  to  Netley  Abbey  the  following  day,  and  I 
accompanied  them. 

On  the  evening  after  our  return,  I  went  out  to  walk  along 
the  wharves  where  the  giant  steamers  lay.  I  strolled  along  a 
pleasure-ground  by  the  water,  under  some  great  trees  where 
were  cannon  which  had  been  in  the  Indian  service.  It  was 
twilight,  and  a  dark  orange  hue  rippled  on  Southampton  Water. 
I  sat  down  on  one  of  the  benches  under  the  trees,  listened 
to  the  mellow  bells  of  ancient  churches,  saw  the  lights  twink- 
ling in  the  red  air  over  the  dark  groves  of  Cowes,  when  an 
extraordinary  incident  occurred. 

A  tall  man  approached  the  place  where  I  was  sitting,  talking 
gaily  to  two  women.  The  voice  startled  me.  I  had  heard  it 
but  once  before.  It  uttered  but  three  words.  These  were,  "  No 
se,  seTwr."  He  was  too  gay  to  notice  me,  but  as  he  passed  me 
two  men  came  running  up  behind  him.  They  were  working 


THE  DEAF  AND  DUMB  MAN  155 

men  with  dinner-pails.  But  their  hurried  steps  seemed  to 
awaken  the  man's  suspicion.  He  turned  his  head  to  the  side, 
saw  that  he  was  not  being  followed  designedly,  and  as  he  faced 
to  the  front  again  there  was  the  same  gleam  that  I  had  seen  in 
the  Recoleta.  It  was  the  person  whom  I  have  chosen  to  call 
in  advance  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man. 

He  passed  on,  talking  gaily.  I  have  seldom  heard  a  more 
ready  tongue  in  a  public  place.  "  Ready,"  I  say. 

The  flag  hung  over  the  consulate  limp  in  the  rising  mist 
which  the  hot  August  sun  was  beginning  to  burn.  The  ship 
was  to  sail  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning.  I  went  on  board 
early,  and  sat  down  on  the  deck  and  watched  for  the  people  who 
were  to  come  on  board. 

I  recall  reading  again  and  again  an  inscription  on  the  high 
roof  of  a  mercantile  house  facing  the  docks.  It  was,  "  On  this 
place  Canute  rebuked  the  vanity  of  his  courtiers  by  ordering 
back  the  sea."  I  was  picturing  the  scene  of  this  old  history 
lesson  in  my  fancy.  I  could  see  the  king  sitting  down  on  his 
throne,  which  had  been  placed  at  the  edge  of  the  tide,  lifting  his 
sceptre  and  giving  the  royal  order,  the  sea  rising  steadily  in 
great  throbs,  and  — 

When  suddenly  a  sight  caught  my  eye  that  caused  the  vision 
of  King  Canute  to  vanish. 

Among  the  people  coming  on  board  was  a  man  with  a  pitiable 
face.  He  was  tall,  spare,  white.  He  halted  on  the  way  to 
look  around.  It  was  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man.  As  he  turned 
to  look  around,  there  was  the  same  suspicious  soul  gleam  in  his 
eye  that  I  had  seen  before.  The  pitiable  expression  in  his  face 
seemed  to  me  to  be  simulated,  as  of  one  who  would  invite 
sympathy  for  some  hidden  purpose. 

He  was  alone  —  yet  was  he  ?  He  seemed  to  desire  to  appear 
solitary.  I  had  seen  him  twice  before,  or  so  I  suspected.  He 
had  looked  upon  me,  but  had  not  seen  me,  and  I  felt  sure  that 


156  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

he  would  not  recognize  me  now.  As  I  was  sitting  there  the 
ship  bell  rang,  the  last  whistles  blew,  with  a  short,  hollow 
sound,  and  the  captain  came  upon  deck  and  greeted  me.  At 
this  point  Antoinette  appeared  with  a  flow  of  spirits  that  made 
her  look  more  beautiful  than  I  had  ever  seen  her. 

"  Captain,"  she  said,  "  I  have  found  my  good  brother's  friend 

in  our  party.     So  there  is  now  no  need  of  your  saying  to  me, 

'  Make  no  acquaintance  with  strangers.'      It  was  good  of  you  to 

caution  me  against  that,  though  it  did  make  me  feel  childish 

-  Heaven  forgive  me." 

"  You  are  safe  now  with  your  brother's  friend,"  said  the  cap- 
tain, and  he  went  to  the  wheel-house.  There  was  a  slow, 
mighty  movement  under  us ;  the  sea  palace,  now  glittering  with 
a  full  flood  of  sunlight,  moved  out  toward  the  ocean,  and  the 
world  was  lost,  or  seemed  to  be. 

Presently  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man  came  upon  deck,  solitary 
as  though  he  knew  no  one,  and  took  a  seat  alone,  but  near  us. 
He  had  put  on  a  pair  of  gold-bowed  spectacles  with  slightly 
colored  glass  of  a  purplish  hue. 

"  Brother  Paul  allowed  me  a  thousand  dollars  for  this 
journey,"  said  Antoinette  to  me,  with  a  kind  of  sober  merri- 
ment. "  I  have  not  spent  half  of  it,  —  what  do  you  think  of 
that  for  the  first  foreign  outing  for  an  American  girl  ?  I  pur- 
chased for  him  a  dinner  plate  that  will  play  soft  enchanting 
music  when  you  lift  it  up.  I  ought  to  spend  some  of  the  money 
left  over  in  the  steerage,  as  a  gift  of  gratitude." 

The  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man  seemed  to  be  listening.  I  noticed 
the  listening  attitude,  for  we  do  not  hear  wholly  with  our  ears. 

"  But  I  did  indulge  in  one  extravagance,"  she  continued.  "  I 
had  some  money  of  my  own  which  I  put  aside  long  ago  for 
jewels,  when  I  should  see  such  as  met  my  ideal.  I  saw  such  an 
ideal  in  London.  A  necklace  of  diamonds  and  rubies.  I  shall 
never  tell  any  one  what  I  paid  for  it.  But  now  1  have  a 


THE  DEAF  AND  DUMB  MAN  157 

confession  to  make  to  you  and  I  want  you  to  honor  me  for 
it.  I  —  " 

I  gave  the  happy-eyed  girl  a  glance. 

"  He  is  not  listening,"  she  said,  in  a  subdued  tone.  "  He  is 
deaf  and  dumb." 

"  How  do  you  know  ?  "  I  asked,  in  a  low,  continuous  tone. 

"  A  woman  asked  the  clerk  to  answer  the  man's  questions  by 
signs  and  said,  *  He  is  deaf  and  dumb.'  I  was  waiting  for  my 
key,  and  the  polite  clerk  said,  '  Pardon,  lady,  let  me  attend  to 
the  wants  of  the  deaf  and  dumb  man.'  So  it  is  all  right.  I 
was  about  to  say  that  I  am  going  to  pass  the  necklace  through 
the  custom-house  honestly.  I  am  not  going  to  wear  it  under 
lace  on  my  neck,  and  say,  *  Nothing  dutiable.'  I  am  going  to 
carry  an  honest  soul,  as  clear  as  my  beautiful,  beautiful  dia- 
monds are,  all  the  way  through  life." 

The  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man  sat  like  a  statue,  with  a  far-away 
look.  I  could  feel  that  he  had  been  listening.  We  feel  the 
truth  of  things. 

The  white  wings  of  sea-gulls  curved  and  dipped  laterally 
around  us,  in  the  blazing  air.  I  accompanied  Antoinette  to  the 
captain's  table.  It  was  Saturday. 

"  They  have  asked  me  to  sing  at  the  service  to-morrow,"  said 
Antoinette  to  the  captain.  "  I  think  I  will  give  them  the  plain 
hymn, '  For  those  in  peril  on  the  sea.'  If  the  weather  is  fair  I 
am  going  down  to  the  steerage  to  sing  to  that  forlorn  company. 
It  makes  my  heart  melt  to  look  at  them.  I  have  some  crown 
pieces  put  aside  for  the  mothers  of  babies." 

"  I  make  no  objection  since  your  brother's  friend  is  with  you. 
You  are  one  of  those  noble  American  girls  that  I  admire,  only 
—  only  a  little  lacking  in  prudence ;  English  girls  may  have  too 
much  prudence,  but  it  is  on  the  safe  side." 

The  next  morning  the  sun  rose  glorious  from  the  ocean. 
There  was  an  open  sea,  of  purple  waves,  and  a  sky  that  was  as 


168  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

an  oversea  of  gold.  There  were  services  in  the  cabin.  Antoi- 
nette sang  the  usual  hynin,  and  afterward  "  Lead,  Kindly 
Light." 

She  then  started  to  go  to  the  steerage. 

"  Shall  I  go  with  you  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  No ;  that  would  look  as  though  I  thought  I  needed  protec- 
tion, and  would  spoil  my  songs  to  ears  spiritual.  You  may 
listen  to  me  upon  deck." 

An  old  Scotch  minister  conducted  the  service  in  the  steerage, 
and  Antoinette  surprised  all  the  passengers  on  the  deck  by  sing- 
ing the  simplest  of  old  "  revival  "  Scottish  melodies : 

"  My  brother,  I  wish  you  well, 
My  brother,  I  wish  you  well. 
When  my  Lord  calls  I  hope  I  shall 
Be  mentioned  in  the  promised  land." 

She  turned  to  a  mother  who  wore  a  handkerchief  over  her 
head,  and  sang  with  a  superb  tenderness : 

••  My  sister,  I  wish  you  well." 

Then  she  bent  her  eyes  on  a  little  company  of  boys  and  girls, 
and  sang: 

"  Little  children,  I  wish  you  well." 

Her  voice  filled  the  air.  The  deck  passengers  crowded  for- 
ward to  listen.  Even  the  white  gulls  seemed  to  move  slowly  on 
their  wings  as  they  passed  by. 

I  found  my  admiration  for  this  noble  girl  burning  into  love. 
She  won  the  hearts  of  all  on  shipboard  at  that  hour.  Even  a 
stoker's  coal-black  face  bore  marks  of  a  stream  of  tears. 

That  evening  the  red  moon  came  up  in  a  vapory  horizon  as 
the  sun  went  down  as  in  a  sea  of  liquid  gold. 

The  saloon  passengers  began  to  promenade  on  the  deck.     I 


THE  DEAF  AND   DUMB   MAN  159 

walked  with  Antoinette  in  the  merry  round  and  round.  All 
the  passengers  joined  in  the  procession,  except  the  Deaf  and 
Dumb  Man. 

I  sat  down  at  last,  and  Antoinette  left  me.  I  began  to  talk 
with  a  friend,  when  presently  a  sight  met  my  eyes  that  turned 
my  thoughts  into  confusion.  The  promenade  was  still  going 
on,  and  Antoinette  was  promenading  with  the  Deaf  and  Dumb 
Man. 

Round  and  round  they  went,  now  appearing,  now  disap- 
pearing. 

When  she  returned  to  me  at  last,  I  gasped : 

"  Who  introduced  you  to  your  new  friend  ?  " 

"  He  introduced  himself.  He  put  his  finger  on  his  lips  as  I 
passed  him  by,  and  gave  me,  oh,  such  a  pitiful  look  !  I  bowed  to 
him  —  I  pitied  him  —  so  lonely,  away  from  friends,  and  no  one 
to  recognize  him !  As  I  bowed  he  rose  up  and  bent  his  arm.  I 
took  it  —  you  would  not  have  had  me  turn  away  from  a  deaf 
and  dumb  man  ?  " 

I  can  give  no  description  or  analysis  of  my  thoughts  at  that 
hour.  The  conduct  of  Antoinette  in  kindly  breaking  the  loneli- 
ness of  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man  seemed  to  fill  all  hearts  with  a 
new  admiration.  She  was  the  most  popular  young  lady  on  the 
ship  after  that. 

The  weather  continued  beautiful.  Night  after  night  the 
promenade  was  renewed,  and  as  often  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man 
offered  his  arm  to  Antoinette,  and  it  was  accepted.  My  sus- 
picions that  the  man  was  a  pretender  grew,  but  were  they  true, 
or  had  my  eyes  deceived  me  ?  I  distrust  suspicious  people.  I 
questioned  myself  if  I  were  not  suspicious.  I  was  not  sure  that 
this  was  the  man  I  had  seen  in  Buenos  Ayres  and  on  the 
esplanade  of  Southampton  Water. 

The  common  admonition  to  young  travellers,  "  Make  no 
acquaintance  with  strangers,"  admits  of  qualification.  Some  of 


160  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

the  most  lasting  friendships  are  made  with  fellow  travellers  who 
have  taken  the  view  that  one's  country  is  the  world,  and  one's 
countrymen  all  mankind. 

Was  this  man  deaf  and  dumb  ?  Had  my  eyes  and  ears 
deceived  me  ?  If  he  were  not  deaf  and  dumb  why  was  he 
seeking  to  make  such  a  false  impression  ?  What  could  have 
been  his  secret  schooling  in  habit  that  had  led  him  up  to  such 
a  strange  deception  ? 

After  a  few  days  of  serene  weather  the  sky  became  leaden, 
and  high  winds  blew,  and  the  seas  rolled  high.  The  promenades 
were  discontinued,  and  the  men  housed  themselves  in  the 
smoking-room  and  amused  themselves  by  novel  reading  and 
cards. 

On  the  fifth  day  out  an  incident  occurred  that  startled  me 
beyond  measure.  The  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man  spent  his  time 
much  in  the  smoking-room,  at  first  uusocially  and  silently,  but 
very  observingly.  On  this  day  he  made  signs  to  a  gentleman 
of  a  large  and  long  purse  that  he  desired  to  have  a  game  of 
cards  with  him.  A  game  followed,  and  the  Deaf  and  Dumb 
Man  was  easily  beaten. 

The  latter  desired  to  play  again.  Another  game  was  played 
with  a  like  result.  Then  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man  desired  to 
play  for  money.  Notwithstanding  the  unwritten  law  against 
gambling  on  shipboard,  the  rich  passenger,  from  a  love  of 
excitement,  agreed  to  the  proposal.  The  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man 
won,  but  when  the  game  was  ended,  his  opponent  leaped  to  his 
feet,  exclaiming : 

"  I  never  will  have  anything  more  to  do  with  you ;  you 
cheated,  and  I  understand  your  trick  perfectly.  You  are  not  a 
gentleman,  and  I  do  not  believe  that  you  are  deaf  and  dumb.  I 
shall  report  you  to  the  captain." 

I  could  see  by  the  expression  of  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man's 
face  that  he  understood  every  word.  My  heart  turned  sick. 


THE  DEAF  AND  DUMB  MAN  163 

I  went  out  on  deck.  The  sea  was  raging;  but  I  found 
Antoinette  sitting  outside  enveloped  in  ample  wraps.  She  was 
a  very  good  sailor.  She  welcomed  me  in  her  usual  light-hearted 
way.  I  sat  down  beside  her. 

"  Something  is  bothering  me,"  I  said. 

"  The  sea  ? "  she  asked. 

"  No,  not  the  sea ;  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  Of  all  people  in  the  world,  a  deaf 
and  dumb  man  should  give  people  little  concern." 

"  Something  has  happened  in  the  smoking-room,  something 
serious,  which  shows  that  he  is  not  a  gentleman." 

She  gasped  and  turned  pale. 

"  But  he  is  deaf  and  dumb." 

"  How  do  you  know  ?  " ,    I  gave  her  a  searching  look. 

"  Can  you  tell  me  what  his  misconduct  was  in  the  smoking- 
room  ?  " 

I  answered,  firmly  : 

"  He  cheated  at  cards.     I  believe  him  to  be  a  gambler." 

She  gasped  again,  and  a  very  anxious  look  came  into  her  face. 
I  could  see  her  mingling  thoughts  of  doubt  and  fear. 

We  sat  in  silence.  We  were  not  ill,  but  there  are  times  of 
heavy  seas  when  one  who  is  not  ill  desires  to  be  quiet.  Such 
was  the  case  with  us  both,  and  each  had  a  dark  problem  in 
mind  about  which  we  were  not  prepared  to  speak  with  definite 
judgment. 

In  an  hour  or  two  the  captain  passed  us.  He  stopped  with  a 
shadow  on  his  face,  and  said,  after  the  English  way: 

"  Nasty  weather.  You  face  the  winds  bravely,  Miss  Aubey, 
but  let  me  say  once  more,  and  take  my  meaning,  won't  you  ? 
'  Make  no  intimate  acquaintances  with  strangers  ! ' ' 

Antoinette  burst  into  tears.  She  shivered.  She  rose  with  a 
quivering  lip,  and  said  : 

"  Help  me  down  to  my  room  !     I  am  afraid" 


164  TRAVELLER   TALES   OF  CHINA 

I  did  what  she  had  asked,  and  left  her  there.  The  next  day 
she  did  not  appear  upon  deck.  It  was  a  day  of  rough,  rolling 
seas,  and  not  a  woman  appeared  at  the  table.  Many  men 
were  absent  from  the  table,  among  them  the  Deaf  and  Dumb 
Man. 

I  felt  almost  sure  that  this  strange  character  was  the  same 
man  whom  I  had  met  in  the  Recoleta  of  Buenos  Ayres,  and  on 
the  promenade  of  Southampton  Water.  I  suspected  him  to  be 
a  gambler,  and  worse,  a  man  whose  methods  tended  to  crime. 

On  the  day  before  landing  Antoinette  sent  for  me.  Her  face 
had  lost  its  glow  and  confidence. 

"If  my  brother  should  not  come  down  to  the  ship  to  meet 
me,  will  you  see  me  from  the  boat  to  my  home  ?  " 

"  Certainly.     I  should  have  offered  to  do  so." 

A  cowering  look  came  into  her  face,  —  a  look  that  had  grown 
out  of  intense  suffering,  and  she  said : 

"  I  am  afraid." 

"  Of  whom  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Oh,  you  must  know.  It  has  all  come  to  me,  —  what  a  strange 
risk  I  took.  I  was  so  thoughtless.  The  captain  meant  much 
when  he  spoke  to  me  the  last  time.  He  is  world-wise." 

I  could  see  that  her  solitude  in  her  room  had  been  haunted 
by  terror. 

We  heard  the  chimes  of  Trinity  on  the  next  morning  in  the 
mist.  The  ship  was  soon  at  the  dock  after  a  fair  voyage  of 
seven  days.  There  were  shouted  orders  and  ringing  of  bells. 

Just  before  landing  Antoinette  sent  for  me  again. 

"  Will  you  see  that  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man  leaves  the  ship 
before  I  come  up  on  deck  ?  I  never  wish  to  see  him  again,  and 
I  will  wait  for  you  to  accompany  me,  unless  my  brother  should 
come." 

Just  then  there  was  a  warm,  hearty  hand  laid  upon  my 
shoulder.  It  was  the  expected  brother  —  Paul. 


THE  DEAF  AND   DUMB  MAN  165 

"  I  am  all  right  now,"  said  Antoinette,  "  and  we  will  not 
speak  again  now  of  the  incidents  of  the  voyage." 

We  three  went  to  the  saloon,  and  talked  rapidly.  I  saw  the 
Deaf  and  Dumb  Man  pass  out  on  the  gangplank.  As  he  did 
so,  he  looked  behind,  and  his  eyes  rested  upon  us.  He  turned 
his  head  away  when  he  saw  that  I  had  observed  him,  and  as  he 
did  so  there  shot  from  his  eye  the  same  strange  gleam  that 
had  raised  my  suspicions  in  the  cemetery  of  Buenos  Ayres, 
and  the  former  question  in  my  inner  consciousness  came  back 
again. 

It  was  busy  noon  when  we  left  the  ship.  Antoinette  was 
placed  in  a  hack  by  her  brother,  and  he  and  I  took  another  hack 
for  a  business  place.  Antoinette  was  to  go  to  her  home,  and 
her  brother  and  I  were  to  dine  with  her  at  home  in  the  evening. 
Her  father  was  dead,  but  her  mother  and  son  continued  to  live 
in  the  up-town  house  that  had  been  willed  to  them.  Mr.  Aubey 
had  been  president  of  the  Union  Bank. 

Paul  Aubey  and  I  returned  to  the  Aubey  home  early  in  the 
evening,  full  of  anticipations  of  meeting  a  joyful  mother  and 
daughter. 

The  door  of  the  mansion  seemed  to  open  itself  as  we  hurried 
up  the  steps.  Mrs.  Aubey  stood  in  the  hall,  and  her  first  greet- 
ing was  one  that  struck  terror  to  our  hearts : 

"  Where  is  Antoinette  ?  " 

"  Isn't  she  here  ? "  asked  Paul,  in  an  excited  tone.  "  She 
left  the  boat  for  home  at  noon.  I  gave  the  hackman  our 
number,  and  she  intended  to  come  directly  home.  She  must 
have  changed  her  mind,  or  —  something  must  have  happened." 
The  last  words  caused  my  heart  to  sink. 

He  stood  there  in  the  shadow  of  the  hall,  thinking.  Then  he 
turned  his  eye  to  me,  and  said : 

"  Can  you  imagine  anything  to  have  happened  ?  The  hack- 
man was  a  stupid-looking  fellow,  but  he  had  a  good  hack  — 


166  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

No.  501.  I  paid  him  as  I  left  him.  1  had  the  ready  change." 
Mrs.  Aubey  began  to  tremble. 

"  This  is  very  strange,"  said  she.  "  Antoinette  would  not  have 
been  likely  to  have  stopped  upon  the  way,  certainly  not  five 
hours." 

She  turned  to  me.     My  heart  struggled  to  break. 

"  Can  you  imagine  what  has  happened  to  my  girl  —  I  am 
worried  about  her.  My  mind  has  been  unsettled  in  thinking 
about  her  all  the  afternoon.  Antoinette  is  in  trouble ;  1  can 
feel  it." 

"  Something  happened  to  cause  her  to  change  her  mind," 
said  Paul.  "  We  will  sit  down  and  wait.  She  will  come  soon." 

We  entered  the  parlor,  and  sat  down  in  silence  for  a  time. 

"  She  arrived  safely  and  was  well,"  said  Paul  to  his  mother. 
"  Don't  worry  ;  she  will  make  it  all  clear  when  she  comes  back. 
Many  things  are  likely  to  happen  after  a  voyage." 

The  bell  of  the  great  mahogany  clock  struck  seven.  Antoi- 
nette had  not  returned.  The  light  of  the  orange  sky  was  fading 
in  the  windows.  The  gray  night  was  coming  on. 

"  Had  Antoinette  any  particular  friends  on  board  the  ship  ?  " 
asked  Mrs.  Aubey,  "  any  outside  of  her  own  party  ?  " 

I  felt  the  nerves  of  my  upper  lip  quiver. 

"  Only  one,"  I  answered. 

"  Who  was  that  friend  ?  "  she  asked,  anxiously. 

"  He  was  a  deaf  and  dumb  man." 

"  That  was  nothing." 

Anxiety  grew  with  the  lighting  of  the  lamps,  and  the  falling 
of  the  shadows. 

Eight  o'clock.     Antoinette  had  not  returned. 

"  I  will  find  hack  501,"  said  Paul,  starting  up.  "  You  remain 
with  mother."  He  went  out. 

The  clock  struck  nine.     Paul  came  back. 

"  I  have  found  the  hack  and  the  hackman,"  he  said. 


THE  DEAF  AND  DUMB  MAN  167 

"  What  did  he  tell  you  ? "  asked  Mrs.  Aubey,  in  a  tension  of 
nerves. 

"  He  told  me  a  strange  story  —  I  cannot  understand  it.  He 
said  that  he  was  hailed  just  after  starting  by  a  fine-looking 
gentleman,  who  said : 

"  '  The  lady  in  the  carriage  is  a  friend  of  mine.     Stop ! ' 

"  He  stopped,  and  the  gentleman  entered  the  carriage  and 
greeted  the  lady.  As  the  gentleman  did  so,  he  said,  '  Drive  to 
Union  Bank?  He  left  the  gentleman  and  Antoinette  on  the 
steps  of  the  Union  Bank.  The  gentleman  dismissed  the  hack. 
I  feel  certain  that  the  hackman's  story  was  true ;  he  had  the 
honest  tone  when  he  told  his  story." 

Mrs.  Aubey  and  Paul  turned  to  me,  and  I  never  passed  a 
more  dreadful  hour  than  that  under  the  depression  of  their  ques- 
tions, each  of  which  suggested  some  new  alarm. 

"  Did  any  gentleman  take  a  special  interest  in  Antoinette  on 
the  voyage  ?  "  asked  Paul. 

"  No  one  but  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man." 

"  Was  he  deaf  and  dumb  ?  That  man  could  talk  —  the  one 
that  the  hack  man  described." 

"  I  do  not  know." 

"Do  —  not  —  know  —  that  implies  suspicion.  What  attention 
did  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man  pay  her  ?  " 

"  She  promenaded  with  him  on  deck  on  the  evenings  of 
pleasant  days." 

"  But  you  were  on  board.    Why  did  she  accept  his  attentions  ?  " 

"  She  pitied  him  because  he  was  lonely,  deaf  and  dumb." 

"  It  begins  to  look  dark,"  said  he. 

Mrs.  Aubey  began  to  cry  hysterically. 

"  Had  you  any  reasons  to  believe  that  that  man  was  not 
.honest?" 

I  could  feel  my  nerves  creep  and  shrink  as  this  direct  question 
was  put  to  me.  What  could  I  say  ? 


168  TRAVELLER   TALES  OF  CHINA 

"  I  did  have  suspicions  that  he  might  not  be  what  he  seemed 
to  be.  But  I  could  not  caution  Antoinette  about  a  man  of  whose 
character  I  could  not  be  quite  certain.  When  the  rough  weather 
came,  she  kept  her  room,  and  there  her  acquaintance  with  the 
Deaf  and  Dumb  Man  seemed  to  end." 

The  mother  went  into  the  hall,  leaving  Paul  and  me  alone. 

"  I  want  you  now  to  open  your  heart  honestly  and  fully  to 
me,"  said  Paul.  "  What  do  you  believe  to  have  been  the  fate 
of  my  sister  ?  Has  she  eloped  with  that  man  ?  " 

"  Never !     It  would  have  been  impossible." 

"  I  agree  with  you  there." 

He  began  again : 

"  Why  did  she  get  out  with  that  man  at  the  bank  ?  " 

"  He  asked  her  to  identify  him  there  that  he  might  cash  a 
draft  or  a  check,  or  some  like  transaction." 

He  thought  of  this  theory.     I  could  feel  his  nerves  quiver. 

"  But  I  have  been  to  the  bank  clerks  and  cashiers.  They 
have  seen  no  such  person.  They  would  have  known  her  at 
once." 

"That  was  an  excuse  that  he  made.  The  man  knew  the 
neighborhood  of  Union  Bank ;  he  knew  that  your  father  had 
been  president  of  that  bank.  He  made  some  new  excuse  on  the 
steps  of  the  bank,  caused  your  sister  to  step  aside,  and  robbed 
her." 

"  But  why  does  she  not  return  ?  " 

"  Do  you  read  the  papers  ?  People  sink  into  oblivion  in  such 
ways  as  that  every  week.  We  might  almost  believe  that  some 
people  vanish.  They  are  seen  full  of  life,  honor,  promise,  and 
in  an  hour  they  are  gone,  no  one  knows  how  or  where.  I  shall 
never,  never  forget  the  good  old  English  captain's  advice  to  poor 
Antoinette,  l  Make  no  intimate  acquaintance  with  strangers.' 
People  do  not  as  often  disappear  in  English  ports  as  in  New 
York." 


THE  DEAF  AND  DUMB  MAN  169 

As  we  were  talking  there  was  a  timid  ring  at  the  door.  Mrs. 
Aubey  flew  to  answer  the  bell.  The  door  opened,  and  a  strange 
sound  in  the  hall  startled  us.  There  was  uttered  a  cry  — 

"  Oh,  mother !  " 

It  was  Antoinette. 

Paul  and  I  rose  up,  and  stood  like  statues.  She  sunk  down 
into  the  nearest  chair. 

"  Every  word  that  I  will  tell  you  is  true,"  said  she,  with 
nervous  earnestness. 

"  We  shall  all  believe  you,"  said  Paul,  "  your  every  word." 

"  He  asked  me,  he  entreated  me,  he  influenced  me  by  some 
strange  power  to  step  into  a  doorway  near  the  bank  to  explain 
a  paper  to  me.  I  did  not  wish  to  go  —  he  drew  me  by  an 
unseen  power.  I  did  not  intend  to  ever  meet  him  again.  I 
did  not  wish  to  step  round  to  the  doorway,  or  to  see  his  papers, 
or  to  identify  him,  or  anything ;  I  shook  with  terror.  But  he 
forced  me  to  obey  his  will  as  by  an  invisible  influence.  I  dared 
not  disobey  this  will.  I  stepped  into  the  doorway  ;  he  took  out 
a  paper  with  a  seal  to  explain,  when  the  floor  moved  up.  I  felt 
myself  rising  as  if  by  an  unseen  power.  The  floor  stopped. 
Then  he  seized  my  arm  and  led  me  away  through  some  dark 
passage,  I  knew  not  where.  I  was  dumb. 

"  He  robbed  me,  but  he  told  me  that  if  I  would  trust  him  I 
should  not  be  harmed.  He  said  that  he  would  never  forget  my 
singing  in  the  steerage. 

"  He  closed  the  door  of  a  close  windowless  room  upon  me.  I 
remained  there  some  hours.  Then  he  came  for  me,  and  led  me 
to  the  same  platform.  It  was  night,  and  the  floor  moved  down. 
You  can  never  imagine  my  horror  at  that  moment  when  the 
floor  moved  up.  I  can  never  recover  from  that  moment  of 
horror.  My  brain  burns  now  !  " 

Her  mother  clasped  her,  saying : 

"  You  are  our  own  again." 


170  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

"  But  the  wing  of  my  life  is  broken.  I  shall  never  recover 
frpm  the  shock  that  I  received  when  that  floor  moved  up" 

The  case  was  secretly  given  to  the  police.  But  the  accom- 
plices of  the  crime  were  never  found.  No  one  seemed  to  be 
able  to  explain  the  secret  that  caused  the  elevator  to  move  up 
at  the  will  of  a  stranger.  The  man  who  operated  the  secret 
elevator  could  not  be  found ;  but  rooms  that  had  been  occupied 
at  the  top  of  the  house  were  never  claimed  again  by  its  former 
occupants. 

This  part  of  the  story  is  brought  back  to  me  often  by  the 
accounts  of  sudden  and  mysterious  disappearances  of  people  in 
great  cities,  as  recorded  in  the  daily  papers.  Behind  many  of 
these  disappearances  there  is  always  some  strange  history,  and 
the  key  to  the  mystery  is  not  often  found. 

Would  I  ever  again  meet  this  dark-souled  man,  who  carried 
with  him  a  gleam  of  light,  who  was  by  nature  and  association  a 
criminal,  but  whose  soul,  somehow,  through  the  gift  of  some 
good  ancestor,  perhaps,  was  still  in  struggle  ? 

Some  years  after  these  strange  occurrences,  I  was  in  Montreal. 
Spring  was  lighting  up  Mont  Royal,  and  the  St.  Lawrence  was 
flowing  free  again. 

There  was  street  preaching  in  one  of  the  squares  of  the  city 
evenings,  and  I  went  to  the  place  one  shadowy,  red  twilight, 
attracted  by  the  singing. 

The  preacher  on  this  occasion  drew  crowds  by  his  fervor. 
As  soon  as  he  rose  up,  1  saw  something  familiar  in  his  face.  It 
held  me,  and  the  impression  grew.  The  speaker  was  none  other 
than  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  Man. 

His  face  lighted  up  again.  I  listened  spellbound  at  his  dis- 
course, wondering  whether  he  was  led  by  an  angel  or  a  devil ; 
whether  I  should  report  him  to  the  police,  or  offer  him  my  hand. 

The  last  words  of  his  discourse  led  me  to  decide  to  leave  him 
in  silence,  for  a  time,  until  I  could  better  consider  the  case. 


JADE  BOXES  173 

The  words  were  these : 

"  I  have  been  a  man  of  evil  thoughts,  devil-haunted,  and  I 
have  done  dark  deeds,  and  I  would  be  a  hypocrite  did  I  not 
make  this  confession  to  you.  But  the  love  of  doing  good  has 
overcome  a  secret  inborn  desire  to  do  evil.  I  have  shut  my  soul 
forever  to  the  evil  spirit  that  for  years  overcame  me ;  my 
temptations  have  gone,  and  what  I  have  done  any  man  can  do." 

That  man  I  have  met  again  to-day.  I  found  him  dying  in 
the  hospital.  He  told  me  the  secret  of  his  life  in  one  word. 
You  may  guess  what  that  one  word  is.  Opium ! 


JADE   BOXES 

ANOTHER  curious  adventure  happened  in  Liverpool. 

In  an  old  East  India  Museum  Charles  Barnard  and  Louis 
Forbes  found  many  interesting  things.  They  returned  to  the 
collection  several  times,  it  being  very  near  their  hotel. 

One  day  the  two  boys  came  running  to  the  hotel  to  call 
Ah  Hue. 

"  We  have  found  something  strange,"  said  both.  "  Ah  Hue, 
return  with  us." 

The  three  went  to  the  musty  museum,  and  the  boys  led  Ah 
Hue  to  a  dingy  apartment  over  which  were  the  words,  "  Opium 
Smuggler  Tools." 

They  led  him  to  a  cabinet,  which  was  filled  with  odd 
inventions. 

"  There,"  said  they,  "  are  boxes  of  jade,  —  hollow,  green  boxes, 
—  but  they  have  no  label." 

Ah  Hue  looked  through  the  glass  silently.     He  at  last  said : 

"  They  have  no  labels,  but  they  form  a  part  of  '  Opium 
Smugglers'  Tools.'  They  are  like  those  that  were  built  into 
the  new  chimney,  are  they  not  ? " 


174  TRAVELLER   TALES  OF  CHINA 

"  Yes,  of  the  same  kind.  This  is  very  curious.  Let  me  call 
Mr.  Barnard." 

Charles  ran  for  his  father.  Mrs.  Barnard  and  Lucy  followed 
Ah  Hue  back  to  the  museum,  and  gazed  in  wonder  on  the  green 
jade  boxes. 

Lucy  seemed  to  be  the  most  interested  of  all  the  party. 

"Oh,  Ah  Hue,"  she  said,  "you  are  right  —  I  know  that  you 
are  right  in  regard  to  the  mystery  —  you  see.  What  do  you  say 
now?" 

"  I  am  surprised  to  meet  these  jade  boxes  in  Liverpool,  but  I 
expected  to  find  such  things  in  the  old  hong  museum  in  Canton. 
I  think  we  will  find  such  boxes  there,  and  that  I  can  trace  such 
devices  through  the  records  of  the  old  mandarins  to  your  own 
neighborhood  in  Boston.  The  mandarins  are  accountable  for 
the  known  history  of  people  who  disappear." 

The  boys  again  and  again  visited  Rochedale,  the  great  cooper- 
ative city.  It  is  not  far' from  Liverpool.  There  working  people 
have  bank  accounts,  and  the  successful  experiment  in  coopera- 
tion became  a  permanent  industrial  life.  They  there  studied 
the  history  of  the  Rochedale  pioneers. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    SILKS  OF  ANTWERP  —  THE  TOWN  WHERE   THE 
INSANE  GO  FREE  — THE  KIKDERPLATZ 

"  WE  are  going  to  the  country  of  silks,"  said  Mr.  Barnard  to 
the  boys.  "  We  must  stop  at  Antwerp,  and  study  the  silk  and 
lace  manufactured  by  the  way." 

Antwerp  (French  Anvers  —  on  ver),  the  commercial  city  of 
Belgium  on  the  Scheldt,  is  a  city  to  which  a  young  industrial 
student  should  go.  Belgium  stands  for  fabrics,  and  her  great 
factories  hum  with  life,  invention,  and  enterprise. 

So  the  party  found  rooms  under  the  "  lace  tower "  of  the 
great  cathedral  where  chimes  of  bells  play  four  times  an  hour 
night  and  day,  and  keep  the  blue  sky  perpetually  filled  with 
music  like  songs  of  angels. 

Here  Mrs.  Barnard  and  Lucy  visited  the  pictures  of  Rubens 
and  the  charities,  while  Mr.  Barnard,  Ah  Hue,  and  the  boys 
studied  the  silk  fabrics  and  the  way  of  making  them.  Ah  Hue 
was  a  most  helpful  companion  here ;  he  knew  the  Chinese 
methods  of  silk  manufacture  well,  and  he  was  as  much  of  a 
student  as  the  others. 

Ah  Hue  related  the  methods  of  cultivating  silk  and  prepar- 
ing it  for  the  market  in  China.  It  was  a  good  place  to  begin 
this  instruction  here  among  the  Belgian  silk-factories. 

"  China,"  said  he,  "  is  the  land  of  the  mulberry-tree.  The 
world  wears  the  product  of  the  leaves  of  the  tree  as  it  drinks 
the  leaves  of  the  tea  plant. 

"  The  silkworms  of  China  are  the  manufacturers  of  the  choice 

176 


176  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

fabrics  of  the  world ;  they  are  fed  on  mulberry  leaves,  to  spin 
cocoons  and  to  die,  and  the  great  looms  take  up  their  work,  and 
we  wear  it."  The  party  visited  many  beautiful  town  halls  and 
buildings  of  trade  in  the  industrial  Kingdom,  among  them  the 
hotels  de  Ville  in  Brussels  and  Ghent. 

Mrs.  Barnard,  as  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Visitors  to  the 
State  Charities  in  Massachusetts,  found  much  to  interest  her  here. 
She  visited  Gheel,  near  Antwerp,  where  the  insane  go  free. 

Here  she  was  told  a  story  by  a  traveller  which  she  never 
would  forget,  for  it  revealed  to  her  one  of  the  best  of  the 
world's  methods  of  caring  for  the  insane  poor. 


A  STRANGE  TALE  OF  GHEEL 

GHEEL,  near  Antwerp,  is  one  of  the  ancient  miracle-places 
of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Europe.  It  has  a  shrine  at  which  for 
centuries  insane  people  have  been  reputed  to  be  cured.  What- 
ever may  be  the  facts  or  the  superstitions  in  such  cases,  modern 
science  has  wrought  what  one  might  claim  to  be  miracles  there 
in  the  treatment  of  nervous  diseases,  for  when  Belgium,  always 
alert  in  social  reforms,  wished  to  make  an  experiment  of  caring 
for  her  insane  poor  by  giving  them  the  freedom  of  the  open  air 
and  the  fields,  she  chose  Gheel  as  the  place  where  the  trial  of 
the  new  method  should  be  made.  Here  her  Department  of 
Charitable  Institutions  has  reversed  most  of  the  methods  of  the 
past  in  the  care  of  nervous  patients  by  placing  such  invalids  in 
small  boarding-houses  in  the  wide,  open,  sea-cooled  country,  and 
giving  them  their  freedom  under  sympathetic  supervision.  The 
experiment  of  the  Belgian  government,  at  first  held  to  be  peril- 
ous, has  proved  as  successful  as  its  purpose  was  beneficent;  it 
is  one  of  the  merciful  miracles  of  modern  science,  whose  influ- 
ence seems  destined  to  fill  the  world.  The  streets  of  Gheel, 


A    STRANGE   TALE   OF  GHEEL  177 

worn  for  a  thousand  years  by  the  footsteps  of  unhappy  pilgrims, 
are  now  visited  by  the  philanthropic  investigators  of  all  lands, 
who  study  the  most  merciful  ways  of  treating  the  most  pitiable 
of  human  afflictions. 

Gheel  is  a  green  oasis  of  crofters'  cottages,  in  a  wide  sea  of 
sand  called  the  Campine.  Its  attractive  features  are  its  great 
churches,  its  ever-turning,  castle-like  windmills,  and  its  bright 
and  rippling  linden-trees. 

The  lindens  of  Gheel !  What  broken  spirits  have  walked 
under  their  long,  cool  shadows,  —  an  empress;  a  prince;  men  of 
rank,  crushed  by  care ;  men  of  genius  and  intellectual  power ; 
people  separated  from  their  families;  people  with  no  families 
and  few  friends ;  Belgium's  insane  poor ;  the  trembling  epilep- 
tic ;  the  outcast,  who  has  been  made  what  he  is  by  the  strange 
conduct  of  long,  slow  invasion  of  mental  disease,  —  all  reduced 
to  a  common  level  in  the  sympathy  of  their  sorrow.  Gheel  has 
been  a  miracle-place  for  the  healing  of  the  insane  for  so  many 
centuries  that  one  recalls  with  a  heart-throb  the  long  procession 
of  these  pilgrims  of  hope  and  fear  as  one  sits  down  on  the 
gray,  mossy  walls  under  the  avenue  of  lindens,  an  avenue 
that  stretches  far,  far  away  in  the  green  garden  of  the  sandy 
Campine. 

I  shall  never  forget  a  tale  of  mental  suffering  and  of  relief 
through  a  new  imagination  that  was  told  me  by  a  Swiss-English 
physician  as  we  sat  down  on  the  long  low  stone  wall  under  the 
lindens  of  Gheel. 

My  interest  in  Gheel  had  been  curiously  awakened.  I  was 
travelling  from  Geneva  to  Antwerp  with  a  medical  friend  who 
had  made  a  long  study  of  the  morbid  manifestations  of  nervous 
disease.  An  asylum  seemed  to  fly  by  the  swift  car  window,  and 
it  left  in  my  mind  the  shadow  of  its  wing. 

"  Is  it  true,"  I  asked  my  friend,  "  that  there  is  a  town  in  Bel- 
gium where  thousands  of  insane  or  nervously  afflicted  people 


178  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

are  allowed  to  roam  free,  and  where  the  farm  folk  for  many 
miles  are  employed  in  boarding  them  and  caring  for  them  ? " 

"  You  mean  Gheel  in  the  Campine,  the  place  where  Belgium 
has  made  a  new  experiment  in  the  care  and  treatment  of  her 
insane  poor,  —  the  old  miracle-place  of  St.  Dymphnea.  Yes," 
he  continued,  "  it  is  true  that  some  two  or  more  thousand  ner- 
vous patients  are  so  cared  for  there  in  the  freedom  of  the  open 
air.  I  myself  once  sent  there  a  patient  whose  case  was  the 
strangest  I  have  ever  known.  I  will  tell  you  the  curious  story 
some  day ;  it  is  a  mystery  of  the  imagination,  and  one  that  so 
touched  my  heart  and  awakened  my  curiosity  that  it  has  never 
ceased  to  haunt  me." 

The  green,  sunny  fields  and  bowery  towns  of  Belgium  were 
moving  past  us  like  an  unrolling  picture.  We  had  been  to- 
gether to  the  battle-field  of  Waterloo,  had  visited  the  famous 
well  of  Hogomont,  so  vividly  described  in  "  Les  Misdrables,"  and 
had  been  to  the  place  of  the  orchard  where  Napoleon  L,  a  fugi- 
tive and  all  alone,  had  spent  an  hour  in  reflection  after  the  red 
twilight  on  that  field  which  had  decided  his  destiny  and  the  lines 
of  the  map  of  Europe.  What  an  hour  to  the  suddenly  fallen 
emperor  that  must  have  been  !  What  thoughts,  what  feelings 
must  have  come  to  him  in  that  orchard,  in  the  twilight  after 
the  sunburst  and  clouds,  when  the  god  shrunk  into  the  man ! 
I  had  shared  the  imaginations  of  the  place  with  my  friend  the 
doctor. 

He  continued  to  answer  my  question,  as  he  saw  that  I  was  so 
greatly  interested. 

"  Gheel  in  the  Campine,  or  open-sea  country,"  he  said,  "  is  a 
place  of  wide  horizons,  of  green  gardens  and  fields,  where  the 
arms  of  the  great  windmills  are  always  going.  It  is  situated 
some  twenty-six  miles  from  Antwerp,  in  the  province  of  Ant- 
werp. Its  titular  saint  is  the  Princess  Dymphnea,  who  was 
slain  by  her  father,  an  ancient  King  of  Ireland,  for  her  virtuous 


A   STRANGE   TALE   OF  GHEEL  181 

conduct  there,  at  whose  death  or  martyrdom  deranged  people 
were  said  to  have  been  restored  to  health.  A  shrine  arose 
there  to  commemorate  this  supposed  miraculous  healing.  It  is 
now  a  very  beautiful  church,  with  a  long  history,  —  a  place  of 
prayers  for  the  recovery  of  the  insane,  full  of  legendary  lore. 

"  St.  Dymphnea's  tomb  became  a  place  of  pilgrimages  for  the 
healing  of  deranged  folk.  The  patients  used  to  undergo  a  kind 
of  novitiate  in  a  house  near  the  church,  or  that  formed  a  part 
of  it,  before  they  entered  the  mausoleum. 

"  The  town  now  is  a  state  hospital,  some  thirty  miles  in  cir- 
cumference, where  the  patients  are  treated  in  cottage  boarding- 
houses,  and  where  wonderful  cures  are  reported  to  have  been 
wrought.  You  have  heard  the  story  of  the  Miller  of  Gheel  ?  " 

"  No,  doctor,  I  never  so  much  as  heard  the  name  of  Gheel 
before.  Who  was  the  miller  ?  " 

"  He  is  represented  as  a  kind  of  Belgian  '  Wise  Man  of 
Gotham ; '  he  set  up  two  windmills  in  the  same  lot,  and  he  re- 
flected that  there  would  not  be  wind  enough  in  one  lot  for  two 
windmills,  and  so  he  had  one  of  the  mills  removed. 

"  The  strange  thing  about  Gheel  is,"  he  continued,  "  that 
most  of  the  patients  become  harmless  there.  As  the  open-air 
hospital  is  now  conducted,  it  is  one  of  the  most  successful  experi- 
ments in  mental  healing  that  has  ever  been  made." 

I  became  intensely  interested.  "  How,  my  friend,  do  you  ac- 
count for  this  result  ?  "  I  asked,  with  a  nervous  curiosity. 

"  By  suggestion,  in  part.  Gheel  makes  for  the  patients  a  new 
imagination.  The  insane  folk  believe  that  they  will  be  harm- 
less there,  and  they  are  harmless.  It  is  a  new  imagination  that 
helps  to  heal  in  mental  disease.  The  atmosphere  of  the  place 
is  quiet,  and  is  haunted  with  legends  of  wonderful  recovery.  '  I 
am  a  little  deranged,'  said  a  prince  who  was  being  treated  there, 
'  but  the  quiet  here  helps  me.'  The  quiet  that  helps  one  there 
is  not  only  that  of  the  air,  fields,  gardens,  and  linden-trees,  but 


182  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

of  the  hope  in  all  faces.  The  afflicted  people  are  sent  there  to- 
recover,  and  many  of  them  do  either  recover  or  come  to  have 
a  more  hopeful  imagination." 

I  began  to  dream  of  all  that  the  doctor  had  told  me  about 
Gheel  as  we  passed  along  toward  Antwerp,  the  sunny  villas  and 
the  open  fields  still  flying  past  us.  The  partial  failure  of  men- 
tal powers  accounts  for  so  many  things  that  are  strange  and 
sad  in  life  that  I  have  long  felt,  though  not  myself  a  physician, 
a  most  sympathetic  interest  in  what  relates  to  the  help  and 
healing  of  the  insane. 

While  I  was  thus  dreaming,  the  doctor  said  to  me,  "  Gheel 
is  a  '  commune,'  a  '  kindergarten,'  for  those  who  have  become 
children  again.  It  leads  the  imagination  into  free  air  and 
fields." 

A  "  commune  "  —  a  "  kindergarten."  I  recalled  the  old  New 
England  traditions  of  tying  those  whose  wills  became  weak,  and 
nerves  unbalanced  and  irresponsive,  to  bedposts  and  staples ;  of 
such  as  rattled  their  chains  on  the  approach  of  friends,  and 
whose  cries  and  moans  made  wakeful  nights  in  lonely  houses, 
until  merciful  death  brought  the  healing  of  silence ;  of  suicides 
who,  on  account  of  their  disease,  were  buried  in  lots  apart  from 
the  common  villages  of  the  dead,  and  upon  whose  graves  in  old 
England,  if  not  in  New,  the  ignorant  cast  stones  with  looks  of 
terror.  "  I  am  going  to  be  mad,"  said  poor  George  III.,  "  and  I 
wish  that  I  were  dead."  But  death  did  not  come",  he  came  to 
live  at  last  in  a  padded  room,  and  Waterloo  passed  and  he  knew 
it  not.  As  said  poor  Charles  Lamb,  — 

"  for  ills  like  these 

Christ  is  the  only  cure  :  say  less  than  this, 
And  say  it  to  the  winds." 

There  is  no  experience  in  life,  however  hard  or  sad,  that  one 
may  not  glorify  by  a  noble  sympathy.  Charles  Lamb  was  a 


A   STRANGE   TALE   OF  GHEEL  183 

better  man  for  the  loving  care  that  he  bestowed  upon  his  peri- 
odically insane  sister ;  he  saw  life  with  a  clearer  vision  for  this 
experience,  and  it  imparted  to  his  genius  and  wit  the  grace  and 
tone  of  a  beautiful  charity  that  was  the  love  of  the  world. 

"  It  is  not  mental  hypnotism,"  I  said  to  the  doctor ;  "  it  is  the 
power  of  the  human  heart  that  has  made  a  healing  fountain  of 
Gheel." 

The  high  tower  of  Antwerp  cathedral  began  to  rise  in  the 
blue  air  —  the  "  lace  tower,"  whose  chimes  never  cease  —  the 
crown  of  glory  of  the  land  and  sea.  We  were  in  the  city  of 
Rubens  soon,  and  the  next  day  the  doctor  met  me  in  the  hotel 
reading-room,  and  said : 

"  Where  shall  we  go  —  to  the  Rubens  collection  ?  " 

"  It  is  a  lovely  day  ;  let  us  go  to  Gheel." 

"  To  confirm  your  view  that  the  wonder  one  may  observe 
there  is  the  result  of  sympathetic  faith  in  human  nature,  and 
not  of  hypnotism  ? "  said  he.  "  We  will  go." 

It  was  a  lovely  day,  and  the  country  was  most  beautiful  along 
our  way.  I  never  saw  a  more  restful  level  landscape.  There 
is  a  vivid,  lustrous  greenness  in  the  low  countries  of  Belgium 
and  Holland  that,  except  in  England,  is  seldom  to  be  seen  else- 
where in  the  world,  —  a  greenness  that  leads  to  the  semicircle 
of  the  embanked  sea,  where  everything  gleams,  glows,  and 
glistens.  Red  poppies,  like  those  one  sees  in  early  summer  on 
the  battle-field  of  Waterloo,  sprinkle  the  airy  verdure.  Every- 
where were  blooming  gardens,  and  picturesque  peasant  women 
at  work  in  them.  At  a  little  distance  from  the  city  giant  wind- 
mills began  to  appear,  antique,  castle-like  structures,  with  great 
arms  that  seemed  to  be  putting  to  flight  some  invading  foe. 
On  the  level  landscape,  and  in  the  clear  bright  air,  near  and  far, 
they  always  attracted  and  delighted  the  eye. 

The  conductor  on  guard  cried  out,  "  Gheel ! "     I  looked  out. 

"  Where  ?  "  I  asked. 


184  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

There  was  spread  out  before  us  much  the  same  broad  green 
landscape,  bright  sunlight,  and  windmills.  We  passed  from  the 
car  to  the  platform.  In  the  distance  two  great  churches  arose, 
one  of  them  seemingly  in  the  fields.  They  looked  like  cathe- 
drals from  which  the  city  had  vanished. 

Quiet  ?  We  recalled  the  prince  who  sought  the  influences  of 
the  place  some  ten  or  more  years  ago,  and  said  to  a  friend  whom 
he  met  there,  "  I  am  a  little  deranged,  but  the  quiet  here  helps 
me."  There  is  something  pathetic  in  the  condition  of  one  who 
thus  understood  so  well  his  own  case,  and  whose  apprehensions 
must  have  been  that  he  would  lose  control  of  self.  His  view  of 
Gheel  will  be  shared  at  once  by  the  nervous  visitor.  The  quiet 
is  atmospheric  —  it  can  be  felt.  It  is  hypnotic. 

The  people  who  left  the  cars  walked  leisurely  along  the 
blooming  sidewalk  of  a  winding  road.  A  hote,  as  a  host  is 
called,  or  one  who  boards  the  paying  patients,  came  down  to 
the  depot  to  meet  some  one  who  was  being  treated  there.  A 
nourricier,  as  a  cottager  who  cares  for  the  poor  is  called, 
appeared  there  also  in  a  peasant  frock,  and  went  away  alone. 
There  were  dog-carts  in  the  road  ;  there  are  these  cheerful  carts, 
in  which  three  dogs  do  the  work  of  a  horse,  everywhere  in 
Gheel.  The  peasants  peddle  their  milk  and  vegetables  in  these 
picturesque  vehicles.  The  patients  ride  in  them. 

I  followed  the  doctor,  who  followed  the  people. 

We  came  at  last  to  a  little  town  like  a  place  in  a  German 
story-book.  The  houses  were  old,  the  streets  clean  and  simple ; 
the  square  was  like  that  of  "  Old  Antwerp  "  as  exhibited  at  last 
year's  exposition,  or  in  1894.  Over  all,  like  a  mountain,  loomed 
the  old  church. 

The  door  of  the  church  was  open  to  the  sun.  The  doctor 
went  in,  and  I  followed  him.  It  was  a  vision :  the  great  crucifix 
hanging  from  the  arch  over  the  resplendent  altar ;  the  fine 
carvings  of  the  Stations  of  the  Cross ;  the  pulpit  borne  up  by 


A   STRANGE    TALE  OF  G1IEEL  185 

cherubs;  the  pictures,  decorations,  and  the  harmony  of  the 
whole.  I  could  have  remained  there  for  hours  in  the  silence  of 
such  a  beautiful  revelation. 

"  We  will  now  go  to  the  hospital  village,"  said  the  doctor. 

"  Where  ? " 

I  saw  no  hospital  —  nothing  that  would  remind  one  of  such 
an  institution.  But  the  hospital  there  is  not  an  institution ;  it 
is  a  place,  a  village,  a  hamlet. 

We  turned  a  corner  at  last,  when  there  came  to  view  a  vision 
as  lovely  as  that  in  the  church.  It  was  an  arch  formed  by  a 
mile  or  more  of  linden-trees.  The  vista  was  a  long,  cool  shadow 
in  the  broad  fields  of  the  sun.  On  one  side  of  this  avenue  was 
the  hospital,  a  little  village  of  neat  brick  houses,  and  on  the 
other  side  houses  of  the  farm  folk,  with  thatched  or  straw- 
covered  roofs,  with  green  moss  about  the  roomy  chimneys. 

We  stopped,  for  the  scene  was  a  charm.  Then  the  shadow  of 
the  place  came  into  my  mind.  Think  of  the  anxiety,  the  suffer- 
ing, the  flickering  hopes,  the  long  hours  of  despair,  the  sleepless 
nights,  the  thoughts  of  loved  ones,  the  heart  pain  at  the  neglect 
of  the  world,  the  longings  for  life,  the  longings  for  death  that 
does  not  come,  that  this  old  bowery  town  has  seen ! 

"  Doctor,"  I  asked,  "  what  is  the  best  preventive  against  a 
diseased  mind  ?  " 

"  The  habit  of  self-control  in  youth,"  he  answered. 

"  And  what  is  the  cure  ?  " 

"  A  new  imagination  in  a  free  life  like  that  you  may  find 
here.  Nearly  all  of  the  methods  of  treatment  of  the  insane  in 
the  past  have  been  a  mistake." 

Two  patients  passed  by  us.  One  had  a  cheerful  face,  the 
other  seemed  to  be  the  ghost  of  a  life.  The  doctor  directed  my 
attention  to  them. 

"  At  Gheel,"  he  said,  "  a  patient  who  is  recovering  is  given 
the  charge  of  one  who  is  disordered  and  depressed.  The  method 


186  TRAVELLER    TALES  OF  CHINA 

gives  to  one  responsibility,  and  to  the  other  hope  ;  it  helps  both." 

A  little  woman  came  ambling  by  with  a  fantastic  handker- 
chief over  her  head.  She  seemed  to  be  in  the  realm  of  the 
imagination.  She  stopped  and  dropped  a  curtsey. 

"  Have  you  lost  your  way  ? "  she  asked. 

"  I  never  was  here  before,"  1  replied. 

"  Always  keep  your  way  when  you  have  it,  and  you  will  never 
get  lost."  She  dropped  another  curtsey  and  said :  "  Trouble 
dwells  in  houses.  I  live  out-of-doors ;  it  is  good  for  my  head. 
I  should  be  well  enough  if  I  hadn't  any  head."  She  added, 
"  Some  people  think  that  I  do  not  know  much,  and  I  rather 
guess  that  they  are  not  much  mistaken."  She  had  evidently 
used  one  word  too  many.  She  looked  happy  and  ambled  away. 

More  pleasing  scenes  were  coming  into  view.  The  peasants 
were  returning  from  some  market  in  dog-carts.  The  little  dogs 
were  perfect  pictures  of  the  happiness  of  helpful  industry. 

We  entered  a  small  neat  brick  house,  and  there  met  Doctor 
Peeters,  the  superintendent  of  the  Commune,  who  speaks  English 
well. 

"  Gheel,"  said  Doctor  Peeters  to  us,  evidently  intending  the 
information  for  me,  "  is  an  open  establishment  without  walls, 
without  gates,  or  any  instruments  of  force.  The  patients  who 
come  here  are  examined,  and  their  cases  are  studied  in  the 
hospital  cottages ;  they  are  then  sent  out  into  the  Commune, 
each  district  of  which  is  under  a  medical  inspector.  A  large 
number  of  these  patients  think  that  they  are  persecuted,  and  the 
nourriciers,  or  farm  people  who  board  them,  have  learned  such 
control  as  to  dispel  such  illusions  from  their  minds.  It  is  not 
intended  that  a  harsh,  censorious  word  should  be  spoken  at 
Gheel." 

"  Nagging  keeps  fresh  the  sore  of  the  mind,"  said  my  friend 
the  Swiss  doctor.  "  Let  us  go  out  into  the  roads  of  the 
Commune." 


A   STRANGE   TALE  OF  GHEEL  189 

The  doctor  led  the  way,  and  bidding  good-bye  to  Doctor 
Peeters,  I  followed  him.  We  passed  by  green  gardens  and  vine- 
shaded  doors.  We  became  tired  at  last,  and  sat  down  on  a  wall 
under  the  trees,  near  which  the  fans  of  a  giant  windmill  were 
circling  in  the  bright  clear  air. 

"  Doctor,  you  said  that  you  once  sent  a  patient  here,  and  that 
the  case  was  a  very  strange  one." 

"  Her  name  was  Lucia  Van  Ness,"  said  the  doctor.  "  I  will 
tell  you  her  story,  for  the  scene  of  her  last  hours  has  never 
ceased  to  impress  me. 

"  Lucia  Van  Ness  was  a  beautiful  French  peasant  girl.  She 
lived  near  Geneva,  Switzerland,  in  the  little  town  of  Voltaire- 
Ferney,  near  the-  chateau  that  contains  the  heart  of  Voltaire, 
and  whose  garden  commands  a  glorious  view  of  Mt.  Blanc. 
Her  mother  was  a  widow,  and  the  girl  grew  up  among  the 
peasantry,  and  attracted  attention  wherever  she  went  by  her 
singular  beauty  and  grace.  She  was  very  devoted  to  her  mother, 
and  won  the  love  of  all  people  by  her  wit,  sympathy,  and 
charity  ;  and  yet  she  was  peculiar.  There  were  times  when  she 
seemed  to  be  absent  from  herself,  to  lose  the  consciousness  of 
things  around  her,  and  to  live  in  a  dream.  When  her  mother 
spoke  to  her  in  these  moods,  she  would  start  up  and  say,  '  Oh, 
mother,  where  was  I  ?  I  have  been  away.' 

"  An  English  gentleman,  a  wealthy  bachelor  of  a  worthy 
family,  took  a  villa  or  chateau  that  overlooked  Lake  Leman,  at 
a  place  near  to  the  widow's  cottage.  His  name  was  Cyril.  He 
was  possessed  of  a  fine  face  and  manner ;  was  very  susceptible, 
amiable,  and  generous  ;  and  he  won  the  affection  of  the  French 
and  Swiss  peasants.  He  liked  to  make  picnics  for  these  people 
on  Mt.  Saleve  and  in  the  wood  overlooking  the  junction  of  the 
Arve  and  the  Rhone,  and  at  one  of  these  picnics  he  chanced  to 
meet  Lucia  Van  Ness ;  and,  delighted  with  her  fresh  beauty  and 
amiable  simplicity,  he  showed  her  much  attention.  The  girl 


190  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

immediately  fell  madly  in  love  with  him,  and  from  that  time 
her  only  thought  seemed  to  be  how  she  might  see  him  or  meet 
him.  She  would  loiter  about  his  gates  to  see  him  pass  out  in 
his  carriage,  and  to  receive  the  kindly  recognition  that  he  gave 
to  those  whom  he  knew.  Her  earnest  face  began  to  haunt  him 
in  his  thoughts  of  companionship  as  no  other  ever  had  done. 
She  used  to  go  with  her  old  mother  on  sunny  afternoons  to 
Voltaire's  Garden,  which  was  open  to  the  public,  and  sit  on  the 
seats  that  commanded  the  magnificent  mountain  view.  Cyril 
once  met  her  there,  and  they  passed  together  through  the  long 
covered  arbor,  among  the  ivies  and  myrtles,  and  curious  outlooks 
to  the  vistas  cut  in  the  hedge  walls. 

"  Her  soul  in  that  walk  appealed  to  him.  She  became 
the  vision  of  his  love.  He  came  to  feel  that  his  happi- 
ness in  life  was  at  the  mercy  of  this  simple  and  beautiful 
French  girl,  and  one  day  he  came  to  her  cottage  and  said  to  the 
widow : 

" '  I  wish  to  see  your  daughter  alone  this  evening,  and  to  pay 
her  the  greatest  honor  that  a  man  can  offer  to  a  woman.  Have 
I  your  consent  ? ' 

" '  I  would  not  deny  my  daughter  a  crown,'  said  the  old 
French  lady,  overwhelmed  with  surprise. 

"That  night  he  declared  his  love  to  Lucia.  She  received 
such  a  shock  of  joy  that  she  fell  at  his  feet,  saying: 

" '  This  is  too  much !  I  only  wish  that  I  could  die  for  you. 
I  have  no  will  but  yours.' 

"  The  wedding  was  planned.  It  was  to  take  place  in  one  of 
the  churches  in  Geneva ;  and  Cyril  was  so  pleased  with  the 
spirit  of  his  bride  that  he  wished  to  make  the  event  a  notable 
one.  He  bestowed  upon  the  girl  the  most  beautiful  presents. 
But  it  was  observed  that  she  had  not  been  herself  since  the 
shock  of  joy  that  followed  the  young  man's  avowal  of  his  love. 
There  were  times  that  she  seemed  to  forget  who  she  was ;  to 


A   STRANGE    TALE  OF  GHEEL  191 

lose,  as  it  were,  her  identity ;  and  to  recover  from  the  state  of 
mental  absence  as  from  a  trance  or  dream. 

"  The  wedding-day  came.  The  little  village  was  like  a  holi- 
day, all  the  peasant  folk  were  so  happy,  and  the  simple  French 
women  were  so  proud  of  the  bride.  The  bells  rang  out,  and  all 
hearts  beat  with  the  bells.  The  church  doors  opened,  and  a 
crowd  filled  the  church  amid  pealing  music  and  strewings  of 
flowers. 

"  Cyril's  coach  waited  at  the  door  of  the  cottage,  and  in  it 
the  bridegroom  watched  for  that  door  to  open  under  the  vines. 
It  did  not  open,  but  the  bells  rang  on.  The  bridegroom's  face 
was  framed  in  the  coach  door. 

"  A  man,  at  last,  who  had  come  out  of  a  back  door,  appeared 
in  the  hedge  rows. 

"  '  Why  does  she  not  come  ? '  gasped  Cyril. 

"  '  It  is  awful ! '  said  the  man. 

" '  What  is  awful  ? '  asked  Cyril,  with  white  face,  leaping 
out  of  the  coach. 

"  '  Haven't  they  told  you  ? '  said  the  man. 

"  '  They  have  told  me  nothing.  For  God's  sake,  what  has 
happened  ? ' 

"  '  She  has  gone  mad.' 

"  So  it  was.  When  the  bells  were  filling  the  streets  with  joy, 
and  she  did  not  appear,  they  had  forced  open  the  door  of  her 
room,  and  her  mother  had  found  her  there  on  her  bed,  lying  in 
a  heap,  her  bridal  dress  and  veil  and  flowers  wrapped  around 
her.  She  lifted  her  hands  and  cried : 

"'My  brain  burns;  I  cannot  bear  it!  This  is  too  much. 
Let  me  die  ! ' 

"  Presently  she  knew  no  one,  not  even  her  mother. 

"  There  was  no  wedding.  The  bells  ceased  ringing.  The 
news  of  what  had  happened  stopped  the  joyous  pulse-beat  of 
every  heart.  People  looked  into  each  other's  faces.  There  were 


192  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

tears  in  many  eyes.  The  people  all  gathered  in  the  street  before 
the  door. 

'•  Cyril  rushed  into  the  house.  She  did  not  know  him.  The 
old  mother  fell  into  his  arms.  He  pressed  her  to  his  bosom, 
and  said : 

"  *  I  am  a  man  of  honor,  and  be  she  mad  or  sane,  I  will 
marry  her.  She  will  be  better  soon.  Oh,  my  Lucia,  that  this 
should  come  to  thee ! ' 

"  She  recovered  slowly.  Cyril  became  her  nurse,  and  he 
privately  married  her. 

"  They  were  happy  for  some  years,  when  she  became  strange 
at  times,  and  people  saw  that  a  shadow  was  coming.  She 
became  jealous  of  Cyril  without  cause,  and  her  love  turned  into 
hatred.  She  for  a  time  avoided  him,  and  refused  to  speak  to 
him,  and  she  then  made  an  attempt  to  take  his  life. 

"  What  was  he  to  do  ? 

"  He  brought  the  case  to  me. 

" '  Let  me  take  her  to  Gheel,'  I  said,  l  the  Belgian  miracle- 
town,  and  find  a  place  there  with  some  experienced  hdte  where 
she  would  have  rest  and  quiet  in  the  wide,  still  country,  and 
pure  open  air.' 

"  *  Yes,  but  she  can  have  quiet  and  good  air  in  the  Alpine 
valleys.' 

" 4  Her  imagination  is  disordered,'  I  said.  '  Gheel  corrects  the 
imagination  beyond  any  place  that  I  ever  knew.' 

" «  How  is  that  ? '  he  asked. 

"'The  open  air,  as  I  said,  the  plain,  nourishing  food,  the 
atmosphere  of  hope  and  sympathy,  the  religious  faith,  the  sight 
of  restored  people,  all  favorably  affect  the  deranged  fancy.  That 
is  the  place  for  her.  Let  me  take  her  away.' 

"  I  brought  her  here.  She  talked  constantly  about  the  cruelty 
and  tyranny  of  her  husband  on  the  way. 

"  Lucia's  cloud  began  to  lift  at  Gheel.     But,  as  it  did  so,  she 


A   STRANGE   TALE  OF  GHEEL  193 

seemed  to  have  forgotten  Cyril.  He  visited  her,  but  she  received 
him  as  a  stranger.  She  recalled  that  she  had  had  a  husband, 
but  she  did  not  associate  him  with  Cyril. 

"  Her  mother  died  in  these  dark  days,  but  she  seemed  to  have 
forgotten  that  she  had  had  a  mother.  Thus  a  year  passed. 

" '  Did  you  ever  know  a  case  like  mine  ? '  she  would  ask, 
pitifully,  when  there  came  to  her  a  dim  consciousness  that  she 
was  a  patient  here. 

"  There  was  a  case  at  Gheel  that  somewhat  resembled  hers, 
and  as  soon  as  this  patient  began  to  recover,  I  saw  in  the  experi- 
ence a  ray  of  hope  for  her.  The  woman  was  called  Annie. 

"  I  placed  poor  Lucia  under  the  charge  of  this  woman,  who 
had  been  subject  to  like  illusions.  As  soon  as  they  met,  Lucia 
seemed  to  become  cheerful.  I  noted  the  change,  and  sent  for 
Cyril. 

"  I  recall  the  meeting  well.  Cyril  came  to  Gheel,  and  follow- 
ing my  directions  he  sat  down  upon  the  bank  under  the  lindens 
at  her  hour  for  a  walk. 

"  The  old  beauty  had  come  back  to  her  face.  It  was  early 
summer,  and  the  birds  were  singing  in  the  fields,  and  she  her- 
self approached  us  that  day  humming  some  scrap  of  a  song. 

"  As  she  came  up  to  us  she  stopped.  She  spoke  to  me  in  a 
very  cheerful  way ;  then  looked  Cyril  full  in  the  face,  and  said : 
'  I  seem  to  have  met  you  somewhere  before.  I  have  se,en  you 
in  my  dreams.' 

"  <  I  have  come  here  hoping  to  meet  you,'  said  Cyril.  l  Do 
you  not  know  me  ? ' 

"  She  stepped  back ;  her  eyes  swam  with  tears. 

" '  Then  you  do  pity  me,  don't  you  ? ' 

"«  Yes,  Lucia.' 

" '  And  you  will  undertake  my  case  ? ' 

rt '  Yes.     What  case,  Lucia  ? ' 

" '  You  will  protect  me  from  him,  from  him.     I  do  not  seem 


194  TRAVELLER  TALES  OF  CHINA 

to  remember  now ;  from  him  who  was  my  enemy.  They  used 
to  say  that  he  was  my  husband,  or  something  like  that,  but  he 
was  not ;  he  never  was.  1  feel  sure  that  you  will  protect  me. 
Will  you  come  and  see  me  at  the  cottage  ? ' 

"  The  two  went  back  to  the  cottage  hand  in  hand.  They 
talked  long  and  lovingly  together,  and  as  they  parted,  she  said 
to  me : 

" '  I  am  happy  again.  This  man  has  promised  to  be  my 
protector.' 

"  Day  after  day  Cyril  went  to  see  her,  and  many  were  the 
long  walks  that  they  took  under  the  lindens. 

"  One  day  I  met  her,  and  she  touched  my  arm  and  said : 

"  *  Doctor,  I  have  a  secret  to  tell  you.  It  makes  me  so  happy. 
lam  engaged.' 

" »  Engaged  ?     To  whom  ? ' 

"  '  To  Cyril !  It  is  a  good  engagement.  He  has  a  true  heart, 
and  if  there  be  a  heaven,  it  was  paved  in  gold  for  such  as  he.' 

" '  He  is  a  true  man,'  said  I. 

" '  Yes,  he  is  a  true  man,'  she  added.  '  And  he  will  be  good 
to  me.' 

" '  He  surely  will.' 

" '  May  I  go  away  with  him  ? ' 

" '  You  may.  That  would  be  a  wise  thing  to  do.  I  know 
Cyril.  He  will  always  be  good  to  you.  I  am  glad  that  you  are 
going  away  together.' 

"  Cyril  had  courted  his  wife  again,  and  had  again  received 
from  her  the  promise  of  her  love. 

"  I  honor  the  man  who  is  true  to  his  wife  under  all  conditions 
and  circumstances  in  such  a  case  of  irresponsible  mental  afflic- 
tion, who  suffers  from  her  and  with  her,  and  whose  heart  never 
forgets  the  vow  at  the  altar.  His  experience  will  ennoble  his 
life,  and  make  the  vista  of  it  an  everlasting  support  for  his  own 
infirmities. 


A    STRANGE   TALE   OF  GHEEL  195 

"  Cyril  called  in  a  priest  one  day,  and  he  joined  the  hands  of 
the  two,  and  blessed  them,  and  told  them  that  they  were  husband 
and  wife. 

"  Ten  years  of  happiness  passed  in  this  newly  wedded  love, 
and  then  the  poor  woman  withered,  and  one  day  she  lay  dying. 

" '  Cyril,  I  am  nearing  the  gates.  I  have  been  looking  out  on 
the  Alpine  glow ;  it  is  the  last  time.  I  had  a  husband  once, 
before  you.  My  mind  became  weak,  and  a  darkness  came  into 
it ;  I  was  not  myself  —  I  did  not  treat  him  well.  It  hurts  me 
now  to  think  of  it.  I  did  not  treat  him  well.  He  was  good  to 
me,  but  I  was  not  myself.' 

" '  Lucia,  what  was  his  name  ? ' 

"  '  His  name  was  —  I  have  tried  to  remember  his  name.  It 
comes  to  me  now.  His  name  was  Cyril  —  like  yours.  He  lived 
on  the  borders  of  Lake  Leman,  near  Geneva.  I  loved  him. 
We  used  to  walk  together  in  the  garden  of  Voltaire-Ferney. 
Did  you  ever  know  him  ? ' 

" '  Yes,  Lucia,  I  know  him  well.' 

" '  Cyril,  come  here.  I  did  not  treat  him  well  —  I  was  not 
myself.  You  do  pity  me,  don't  you  ?  Could  you  find  him  and 
send  him  to  me  ?  Is  he  near  ? ' 

" '  Yes,  Lucia  ? ' 

" '  Then  go,  Cyril,  go.  Send  him  to  me.  I  want  to  tell  him 
that  I  was  not  myself,  that  there  came  a  great  darkness  upon 
me,  and  I  was  lost  in  life.  I  can  die  easy  then.  God  knows 
that  I  have  done  the  best  I  could  in  life  !  You  do  pity  me  ? ' 

"  He  left  the  room.     As  he  was  going  out,  she  said  : 

"  '  Send  him  alone.' 

"  He  presently  returned.     She  put  out  her  hands. 

" '  You  are  Cyril,  my  old  husband  long  gone.  I  can  see  that 
you  are.  Do  you  remember  the  picnic  on  the  Saldve,  and  the 
garden,  and  the  lake  ? ' 

" '  Yes,  Lucia,  I  remember  them  well.' 


196  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

" '  The  bells  rung.  We  did  not  marry  then ;  but  you  were 
true.  You  loved  and  pitied  me.  I  turned  against  you  —  my 
mind  lost  its  power.  I  was  tempted,  and  1  did  not  know.  You 
will  forgive  me,  won't  you  ? ' 

" l  It  was  all  overlooked  long  ago.  There  was  nothing  to 
forgive.  You  were  sick.' 

"  '  Go  and  call  Cyril.' 

"  He  went  out,  and  came  back  again. 

" '  He  has  forgiven  me,  and  now  I  forgive  everybody ;  and 
may  God  forgive  me !  I  am  going ;  I  feel  life  leaving  me. 
You  have  been  true  to  me.  He  was  true,  and  you  have  been 
true,  and  I  did  the  best  I  could  in  the  darkness.  Go  and  call 
Cyril  again.  I  want  to  see  you  both.  You  both  have  been  true.' 

"  He  left  her,  and  presently  returned,  and  stood  in  the  door. 

" '  You  are  Cyril.  Both  of  you  are  Cyril  ?  I  see  now  ;  both 
of  you  are  Cyril,  and  you  have  been  true !  Oh,  this  is  too 
much  !  I  am  too  happy  to  bear  it ;  I  do  not  deserve  such  hap- 
piness as  this.  I  am  going  fast.'  Her  face  brightened.  *  Cyril, 
do  you  remember  Gheel  ?  ' 

" '  Yes,  Lucia,  and  the  gardens  and  the  fields  and  the  wind- 
mills.' 

" '  And  the  linden-trees.  I  was  healed  at  Gheel ;  only  my 
memory  was  not  left  right.  Do  you  know  what  it  was  that 
healed  me  ?  It  was  Annie's  hand.  She  had  been  like  me,  and 
she  could  feel  for  me.  In  cases  like  mine  it  is  sympathy  that 
saves.  You  brought  Annie  to  me. 

."'How  serene  and  happy  I  was  when  healing  came  and  I 
used  to  walk  under  the  linden-trees  !  I  can  hear  the  winds  there 
now,  and  the  ripple  of  the  leaves,  and  all  the  birds  singing. 

"  *  I  can  feel  Annie's  hand  still.  Let  me  take  yours.  I  am 
faint ;  I  am  going  now.  Take  me  by  the  hand  once  more.  The 
bells  are  ringing;  there  will  be  no  disappointment  there,  where 
I  am  going.' 


A   STRANGE  TALE  OF  GEE  EL  197 

"  She  breathed  feebly. 

"'Cyril,  I  can  feel  your  hand.  It  —  is  —  growing  —  dark, 
but  I  can  feel  your  hand,  and  you  have  led  me  all  the  way  in 
the  sunlight  and  in  the  shadow.  Your  heart  is  beating  in  your 
hand,  and,  Cyril,  oh,  Cyril,  I  am  so  happy  in  the  shadow, 
your  —  hand  —  has  —  been  —  true.' 

"  They  carried  her  body  back  to  the  little  village  on  Lake 
Leman,  and  the  old  French  bell  that  had  rung  out  for  her 
wedding  tolled  forty  times ;  and  the  peasants  stripped  the  roses 
from  their  gardens  and  covered  with  them  the  new  earth  of  her 
grave." 

The  story  told  among  the  lindens  of  Gheel  that  whispered  of 
hope  in  the  green  garden  of  the  sands  of  the  sea  had  for  my 
ears  this  simple  interpretation :  the  power  of  the  human  heart 
to  make  a  better  imagination  is  one  of  the  most  transforming 
influences  of  life.  This  is  the  lever  of  uplifting  hands  every- 
where, and  this  is  one  of  the  secrets  of  the  miracles  of  beautiful 
Gheel  in  the  Campine. 

In  the  German  towns  Mrs.  Barnard  and  Lucy  stopped  to  visit 
the  kindergarten  schools.  Mrs.  Barnard  had  helped  to  fill 
Boston  with  sand  gardens  for  children,  and  she  wished  to 
see  the  German  Kinderplatz.  Such  visits  delayed  the  way  to 
Russia,  to  which  the  boys  were  impatient  to  go. 

"Why  are  we  spending  so  much  time  at  play  gardens?" 
asked  Charles  of  his  father  and  mother,  at  Berlin. 

His  father  gave  him  a  very  definite  answer. 

"  Because,"  said  he,  "  primary-school  education  is  the  founda- 
tion of  national  character.  Your  mother  and  Lucy  in  Germany 
are  studying  what  is  best  in  the  new  system  of  education." 

Mrs.  Barnard  related  some  incidents  which  revealed  to  the 
boys  the  value  of  the  German  children's  gardens. 


198  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

" '  Primary-school  education  is  the  foundation  of  national 
character,'  said  Sarraiento,  President  of  the  Argentina  Republic 
and  the  great  apostle  of  South  American  development  by  the 
means  of  North  American  Normal  Schools.  He  had  read  the 
works  of  Horace  Mann,  and  he  saw  the  possibilities  of  South 
America  in  the  vision  that  arose  in  the  study  of  these  works. 
He  was  sent  to  the  United  States  as  Argentine  minister  while 
his  philosophical  opinions  were  forming.  Here  he  enjoyed  the 
friendship  of  Charles  Sumner,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  States  owed  their  force  of  progress  to  their  school  system. 

"  That  the  great  Argentine  was  right  in  his  view  of  the  influ- 
ence and  value  of  the  primary  school  is  the  opinion  of  all  clear 
observers.  The  republic  of  childhood  is  the  republic  of  young 
manhood,  and  that  is  the  republic  of  the  age  and  of  the  future. 
But  Sarmiento  saw  that  something  was  yet  needed  in  our  admi- 
rable school  system ;  that  memory  education  alone  does  not 
really  educate.  '  Memory  education,'  in  effect,  said  Pestalozzi, 
'  is  nothing  but  instruction.'  The  education  of  the  heart  and 
conscience  must  come  first  in  true  primary-school  education. 
This  Sarmiento  saw,  and  the  North  American  primary  school  in 
South  America  has  been  replaced  in  Buenos  Ay  res,  Santiago, 
and  Callao  by  the  beginnings  of  kindergarten  education,  which 
seeks  to  put  the  principles  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  of 
Beatitudes  into  the  conduct  of  the  child;  to  model  the  child 
to  live,  rather  than  to  get  a  living,  for  he  who  lives  rightly  will 
get  a  living. 

"  Dom  Pedro  of  Brazil  saw  education  in  the  same  light,  and 
took  with  him  from  New  York  a  company  of  kindergarten 
teachers,  with  whom  he  hoped  to  begin  a  new  education  in 
Brazil,  founded  on  character-building  principles. 

"  After  the  fall  of  Prussia  before  Napoleon  L,  Queen  Louisa 
saw  the  educational  needs  of  the  empire  on  the  Rhine.  The 
king  said  in  her  hearing :  '  We  must  have  a  new  education  to 


msHPi^^ii  ' 

^,v^.  -^"^ ;'" '  C^^v .  »•  ^^  v^'w^v?" 

'•-^         *^'  ^'^f" 


CHINESE    COLOR -BEARER. 


A    STRANGE   TALE  OF  GIIEEL  201 

make  a  new  generation  of  men.'  '  Let  me  send  a  company 
of  students  to  Pestalozzi  at  Yverdon,'  said  the  queen.  Pesta- 
lozzi's  institute  under  the  Jura,  in  the  great  old  castle  overlook- 
ing the  purple  Neuchatel,  made  character-building  the  first  work 
of  the  teacher.  The  queen  sent  the  students.  Two  genera- 
tions passed.  Napoleon  III.  went  down  before  Prussia,  and 
philosophers  said,  '  It  was  Pestalozzi  who  did  it ! ' 

"  People  to-day  are  everywhere  saying,  in  regard  to  our 
present  stage  of  national  development :  '  We  must  have  a  new 
education  to  make  a  new  generation  of  men.'  Memory  educa- 
tion alone  does  not  educate.  Our  old  system  of  primary  school 
education  was  modelled  after  the  administration  of  a  kingdom 
rather  than  a  republic.  As  a  rule,  old-time  primary  schools 
were  absolute  monarchies.  The  child  was  not  developed;  he 
was  merely  taught  to  obey,  or  else  to  feel  the  rod. 

"  A  change  in  primary-school  education,  after  the  visions  of 
Queen  Louisa,  Cousin,  Sarmiento,  Dom  Pedro,  and  of  noble 
Elizabeth  Peabody,  is  making  its  influence  felt  in  every  Ameri- 
can city  and  town.  The  new  education  bears  the  belittling 
name  of  '  kindergarten,'  but  it  has  for  its  basis  the  deepest  and 
most  beneficent  principles  of  philosophy.  The  name  *  kinder- 
garten '  used  to  stand  for  a  play  school  in  the  popular  imagina- 
tion ;  it  now  represents  the  Pestalozzian-Froebel  philosophy, 
which  must  become  a  controlling  influence  in  our  system  of 
education,  if  the  republic  is  to  have  character  and  live.  The 
kindergarten  principle  cf  education  is  one  of  the  most  important 
topics  that  can  engage  the  public  mind  ;  the  hopes  of  the  new 
age  are  in  it.  It  is  to  lead  a  Kindergarten  Age. 

"  This  education  has  character,  not  accomplishments  and 
money-making,  for  its  end.  Its  method  is  to  '  learn  by  doing.' 
The  happiest  moment  in  a  child's  life  is  that  in  which  it  says, 
*  See  what  I  have  made  ! '  or,  '  See  what  I  have  made  for  you ! ' 
To  create  things  for  the  happiness  of  others  is  the  true  child 


202  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

life,  and  so  the  playground  is  made  to  train  the  soul  for  true- 
hearted  living.  The  individuality  of  the  pupil  is  made  sacred  to 
the  teacher,  and  each  child  is  developed  after  his  own  gift, 
as  though  there  were  no  other  child  in  the  world.  Boston  once 
had  twenty -seven  kindergarten  schools — charities.  These 
schools  became  a  part  of  the  public  school  system  and  multi- 
plied. The  mere  charitable  kindergartens  in  that  city  are  now 
largely  sustained  by  the  churches ;  the  city  controls  the  others ; 
and  one  may  to-day  see  there  sand  gardens  provided  by  the 
school  board  for  the  children  of  the  poor,  and  kindergarten 
rooms  filled,  in  some  places,  largely  with  Jewish  children,  sus- 
tained by  churches  that  have  awakened  to  the  new  needs  of  the 
age. 

"  There  are  reasons  why  an  American  traveller  should  study 
kindergarten  in  Germany.  People  should  seek  for  the  best 
methods  of  helping  human  needs  in  every  country  in  order  to 
perfect  them  in  their  own  country.  I  shall  study  the  beginnings 
of  kindergarten  in  China." 

"  Kindergartens  in  China !  "  exclaimed  Lucy.  "  Are  there 
such  schools  there  ?  If  China  could  be  filled  with  kinder- 
gartens what  would  be  their  influence  ? " 

"  Look  at  Switzerland,"  said  Mrs.  Barnard. 

"  Switzerland,  in  which  republics  and  schools  were  born,  pre- 
sents a  model  in  this  rapidly  developing  system  of  education. 
She  claims  to  owe  her  happy  social  condition  to  her  school 
principles  and  methods.  In  Switzerland  all  children  are 
educated  for  the  protection  of  the  character  of  the  state. 
The  Swiss  republic  lias  made  perpetual  treaties  of  peace  with 
the  European  powers,  so  that  revenues  which  otherwise  might 
go  to  standing  armies  might  be  used  for  educational  purposes. 
She  gives  the  veto  power  to  the  people.  The  republic  has  abol- 
ished capital  punishment,  and  put  the  restraints  of  reformation 
in  place  of  the  gallows.  In  some  cases,  she  pensions  her  faithful 


A    STRANGE  TALE  OF  GHEEL  203 

teachers.  She  is  the  true  children's  land.  Out  of  some  eighty- 
five  thousand  heads  of  families,  about  sixty-five  thousand  own 
property.  The  republic  claims  that  these  favorable  conditions 
are  due  to  her  schools. 

"  These  schools  teach  equality.  This  is  no  unimportant  lesson 
at  the  present  time.  Gladstone  advocated  the  cause  of  Afghan- 
istan and  of  South  Africa  against  England,  on  the  ground  that 
the  British  Empire  could  not  afford  to  break  the  law  of  equal 
rights.  This  teaching  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  stability  of 
all  Christian  countries." 

She  added :  "  I  believe  that  missionary  work  in  China  in 
the  near  future  will  take  the  form  of  the  kindergarten  school." 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
THE  GREAT  ASIAX  TEA  FAIR  OF  XIJXI- NOVGOROD 

OUR  tourists  to  the  industrial  centres  went  to  Hamburg,  an 
easy  journey  by  rail,  and  thence  to  Moscow,  another  easy  jour- 
ney. Here  they  were  in  the  city  of  tragic  histories  and  jewels 
and  bells.  Here,  even  in  summer,  the  sun  shone  cold,  like  the 
light  in  the  jewels.  They  visited  the  splendid  churches,  the 
famous  Kremlin,  and  then  went  out  of  the  old  capital  by  rail  to 
attend  the  gatherings  from  all  Asia  at  the  great  fair-ground  at 
Nijni-Novgorod. 

Edna  Dean  Proctor  says  in  a  spirited  poem  on  the  Fair : 

"  Now,  by  the  Tower  of  Babel, 
Was  ever  such  a  crowd  !  " 

The  great  Asian  fair,  here  on  the  banks  of  the  Volga,  has 
been  held  for  centuries.  It  opens  in  mid-summer,  and  may 
gather  here  a  million  people  in  a  season.  One  may  find  all 
Asia  here,  in  representatives,  but  especially  China,  India,  and 
Tartar  Russia. 

"  Here  stalk  Siberian  hunters, 

There  tents  a  Kirgis  clan 
By  mournful -eyed  Armenians 

From  wave-girt  Astrakan, 
And  Russ  and  Pole  and  Tartar, 

And  mounted  Cossack  proud ! 
Now,  by  the  Tower  of  Babel, 

Was  ever  such  a  crowd  !  " 

204 


ASIAN   TEA   FAIR   OF  NIJNI- NOVGOROD  205 

The  party  stopped  at  the  Hotel  Russie,  a  mile  or  more  from 
the  streets  of  the  fair.  These  streets  were  once  the  variety 
store  of  Asia. 

The  people  came  here  in  clans  and  travelling  companies 
of  bartering  traders. 

In  midsummer  the  caravans  from  China  and  the  Oxus  could 
be  seen  swaying  over  the  ocean-like  plains  toward  the  lower 
Novgorod  of  the  Volga.  A  thousand  camels  came.  Boats 
from  hundreds  of  towns  and  many  provinces  crowded  the 
Volga.  There  was  one  place  where  a  student  from  the  West 
could  see  Asia  in  miniature  —  it  was  here. 

China  sent  here  her  choicest  teas  —  "  caravan  teas."  Tea 
was  the  greatest  of  all  the  commodities  of  the  fair.  It  was 
also  the  luxury  of  the  fair. 

"  Russian  tea  "  —  how  is  it  made  ?  A  few  choice  tea  leaves 
and  a  bit  of  lemon  constitute  the  beverage.  It  is  drunk  while 
nibbling  a  lump  of  hard  sugar,  held  in  the  hand,  and  is  taken  in 
this  way  very  slowly. 

China,  in  old  days,  may  be  said  to  have  "  unloaded  "  her  teas 
at  Nijni.  Here  were  streets  of  tea  shops,  and  "  story-telling 
hongs,"  where  tea  was  tasted  for  the  market,  before  general  dis- 
tribution. Here  was  the  trading-place  for  furs,  from  wolf  skins 
to  sables.  The  poor  hunter  bartered  his  furs  for  fabrics  and 
teas. 

Nights  here  were  full  of  festivities,  —  dancing  girls,  gypsies, 
jugglers,  and  entertainers  of  all  kinds  made  a  vast  vaudeville 
under  the  moon  and  stars. 

Ah  Hue  was  at  home  here.  He  began  his  interesting  in- 
structions by  explaining  to  the  Barnards  and  Louis  the  choice 
teas,  how  they  were  grown,  cured,  packed,  and  conveyed  by 
caravan,  and  the  "  brick  tea,"  a  coarse  and  cheap  brand,  which 
was  pressed  hard  into  "  bricks,"  and  sold  at  a  low  cost  to  poor 
people. 


206  TRAVELLER   TALES   OF  CHINA 

TEA 

THE  cultivation  of  tea  extends  over  more  than  a  thousand 
years,  and  half  the  world  drinks  it.  Its  origin  is  ascribed  to  a 
pious  Buddhist  who  sacrificed  his  beard,  threw  it  upon  the 
ground,  where  it  sprung  up  and  produced  a  plant  which  would 
bring  joy  to  the  heart.  The  plant  is  really  a  cultivated  wild 
shrub  and  evergreen,  some  three  to  five  feet  high.  It  has 
pretty  flowers,  and  black  and  green  tea  may  be  made  from  the 
leaves  of  the  same  plant.  It  is  a  hardy  plant  of  exuberant 
growth. 

Tea  meets  some  yet  unknown  need  of  the  human  system,  and 
its  use  is  becoming  universal. 

An  early  Chinese  writer  has  said  all  that  is  known  in  favor 
of  the  use  of  tea  : 

"  It  tempers  the  spirits,  harmonises  the  mind,  dispels  lassitude, 
relieves  fatigue,  awakens  thought,  prevents  drowsiness,  re- 
freshes the  body,  and  clears  the  perceptive  faculties." 

These  things,  if  true,  must  make  the  herb  indeed  a  benefac- 
tion, and  may  well  commend  it  to  the  poets,  as  it  has  done,  and 
make  it  worthy  of  a  silver  porringer.  The  claims  may,  per- 
haps, be  summed  up  in  a  single  sentence,  —  tea  contains  tannin. 

In  1677,  the  East  India  Company  began  to  import  tea  to 
England.  The  herb,  as  a  beverage,  grew  in  favor,  and  the 
profits  of  the  trade  in  value. 

China  consumes  some  two  hundred  million  pounds  of  tea  an- 
nually, and  yet  is  waking  up  from  her  long  quiet.  The  use  of 
tea  in  England  and  her  colonies,  in  Russia  and  in  the  United 
States,  grows  with  the  populations  of  these  countries.  There  is 
not  likely  to  arise  any  substitute  for  it,  and  while  the  world 
drinks  it,  China  can  hardly  fail  to  prosper  in  supplying  the 
common  need.  Her  silk  trade  may  fail  or  be  superseded,  but 
never  her  tea. 


TEA  207 

Henry  Charles  Sirr,  M.  A.,  in  his  great  work  on  China  and 
the  Chinese,  presents  the  curious  facts  that  underlie  the  process 
of  tea  curing — the  secret  of  the  process  by  which  the  leaves 
of  this  common  shrub  are  made  to  affect  the  human  system  in 
all  lands  so  agreeably. 

The  delightful  flavor  of  tea  is  the  result  of  art. 

Of  this  art,  Mr.  Sirr  says  in  easy  descriptive  language : 

"  The  leaves  of  the  tea-plant,  when  newly  gathered,  do  not  in 
the  least  resemble  the  dry  leaves,  either  in  odor  or  flavor ;  they 
have  not  either  a  sharp,  aromatic,  or  bitter  taste.  Their  highly 
prized  qualities  of  pleasant  taste  and  delightful  odor,  which 
they  afterward  exhibit,  are  the  effects  of  roasting,  by  which  the 
leaves  are  dried,  and  of  manipulation.  We  need  not  be  sur- 
prised at  the  effect  produced  by  roasting  upon  the  tea-leaves,  as 
every  one  knows  that  unroasted  coffee  possesses  naught  of  the 
agreeable  aroma  for  which  it  is  peculiar  after  having  undergone 
the  process. 

"  Had  a  certain  writer,  formerly  the  East  Indian  Company's 
tea-taster  at  Canton,  been  aware  of  the  various  modes  of  prepar- 
ing the  leaves,  he  would  not  have  expressed  his  astonishment 
how  any  one,  who  had  been  in  China,  and  who  had  only  seen 
the  different  infusions  of  green  and  black  tea,  can  consider  both 
kinds  of  tea  the  leaves  of  one  and  the  same  plant.  Let  any  one 
take  a  number  of  leaves  of  various  sorts  of  tea,  as  they  come  to 
us  in  trade,  soften  them  in  hot  water,  and  lay  them  side  by  side, 
and  he  will  be  convinced  that  there  are  not  any  distinguishing 
characteristics  between  the  various  kinds  of  black  and  green 
teas.  But,  although  we  think  that  it  is  clearly  established  that 
all  kinds  of  tea  are  prepared  from  the  same  species  of  Thea,  yet 
these  various  teas  are  grown  and  prepared  each  one  in  a  par- 
ticular district.  In  one  we  find  the  green,  in  another  the  black, 
in  a  third  the  tea  is  found  in  almost  a  globular  form,  and  in  a 
fourth  it  is  a  little  curled  ;  just  like  the  vine,  which  is  almost 


208  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

everywhere  the  same  species,  from  which  is  produced  such  an 
infinite  variety  of  wines,  all  differing  in  flavor  and  bouquet. 


THE   STORY  OF  TEA 

"THE  flower  of  the  tea-shrub  is  white,  composed  of  five 
leaves,  and  in  shape  is  similar  to  the  rose,  and  the  berry 
resembles  a  small,  moist  nut.  There  are  four  gatherings  of 
the  black  tea.  The  first  is  in  early  spring,  when  the  young, 
delicate,  and  succulent  leaves  are  plucked,  from  which  the 
Pekoe  tea  is  made.  The  second  takes  place  about  the  20th  of 
April,  when  the  leaves  are  large,  which  produces  fragrant,  full- 
flavored  tea.  The  third  is  about  the  6th  of  June,  after  the 
leaves  have  shot  out  anew ;  this  tea  has  little  smell,  is  weak  in 
flavor,  and  of  a  very  dark  color.  The  fourth  takes  place  after 
the  summer  solstice,  and  another  crop  of  leaves  has  sprung 
forth,  and  this  tea  is  coarse  in  smell,  but  of  a  lighter  color  than 
the  last. 

"  Green  teas,  known  in  Europe,  grow  in  the  south  of  the 
province  of  Kiang-Nan,  and  may  be  classed,  according  to  Mr. 
Ball,  under  the  heads  of  Hyson  and  Single,  the  former  being 
only  the  same  shrub  improved  by  cultivation  and  soil,  taken 
from  the  high  grounds  and  planted  in  the  valleys  round  the 
embankment  of  fields,  and  manured,  and  now  designated  '  hill ' 
and  '  garden '  teas.  There  are  two  gatherings  of  the  leaves  of 
the  green  teas,  one  between  the  middle  of  April  and  the  first 
of  May,  and  the  other  at  the  summer  solstice.  The  tea  is  ren- 
dered superior  by  being  roasted  immediately  after  the  gathering, 
and  previous  exposure  to  the  atmosphere  or  the  sun  is  very 
injurious.  Those  which  cannot  be  thus  treated  are,  therefore, 
lightly  spread  over  a  brick  floor,  or,  if  this  is  not  practicable, 
they  are  placed  upon  shaded  stands,  in  bamboo  trays ;  in  the 


THE  STORY   OF    TEA  211 

latter  case,  a  woman  constantly  examines  the  trays,  and  if  she 
observes  any  indication  of  their  heating  or  turning  yellow,  they 
must  be  instantly  turned. 

"The  kuo,  used  for  roasting  Hyson  tea,  is  also  a  thin,  cast- 
iron  vessel ;  the  inside  is  bright  from  friction.  It  is  much 
deeper  than  that  formerly  described,  being  ten  inches  in  depth, 
and  is  set  five  inches  below  the  level  of  the  brickwork.  It  has 
several  flat  protuberances,  answering  the  purpose  of  handles,  by 
which  it  is  built  into  the  brickwork.  Its  diameter  is  sixteen 
inches.  A  wood  fire  is  lighted  beneath,  and  the  kuo  is  made 
nearly  red-hot,  half  a  pound  of  leaves  is  thrown  in,  and  the 
steam  which  arises  is  considerable.  A  crackling  noise  is  heard 
on  their  being  thrown  into  the  kuo,  the  workman  keeping  them 
constantly  stirred  with  his  hand,  the  heat  obliging  him  to 
change  hands  repeatedly.  After  each  turn  he  raises  the  leaves 
half  a  foot  above  the  stove,  shaking  them  on  his  hand ;  this  is 
continued  almost  as  long  as  the  operator  can  bear  the  heat. 
He  finally  turns  them  three  or  four  times  round  the  vessel, 
collects  them  in  a  heap,  and  throws  them  into  a  basket  held 
by  a  man  at  his  side.  Any  leaves  remaining  in  the  kuo  are 
instantly  removed  with  a  damp  cloth. 

"  The  leaves  are  then  rolled,  as  described  in  the  same  process 
for  black  tea,  the  balls  are  then  shaken  out,  and  the  workmen 
manipulate  the  leaves,  rolling  them  between  their  hands  by 
drawing  the  right  hand  over  the  left,  using  a  little  pressure, 
thereby  causing  the  leaves  to  twist  regularly  the  same  way. 
After  this,  having  been  spread  on  sieves,  they  are  carried  into 
a  cooling  room.  If  they  cannot  be  immediately  re-roasted,  they 
must  be  turned  in  the  sieves  to  prevent  them  from  becoming 
yellow,  but  the  sooner  they  are  roasted  after  the  rolling,  the 
better. 

"  It  is  rather  a  curious  fact,  nevertheless  a  true  bill,  that  in 
China  good  tea  can  rarely,  if  ever,  be  purchased  by  retail ;  in 


212  TRAVELLER    TALES    OF  CIIIXA 

short,  unless  you  are  lucky  enough  to  have  a  friend  among 
the  merchants,  who  will  procure  a  small  chest  of  tea  for  you, 
the  infusion  or  decoction  made  from  the  trash  too  often  sold 
retail  in  China,  under  the  denomination  of  tea,  will  be  neither 
refreshing  to  the  frame  nor  pleasant  to  the  palate,  and  you  may 
wish  in  vain,  in  the  tea  country,  for  a  good  cup  of  tea,  wishing 
that  you  may  get  it.  The  finest  and  most  delicious  teas  are 
never  exported,  being  of  too  expensive  a  character,  as  the  value 
of  these  teas  is  calculated  by  an  equal  weight  of  silver ;  thus  a 
catty  of  tea  is  sold  for  a  catty  of  silver.1  These  teas  are  usually 
bought  by  the  mandarins  and  wealthy,  either  for  their  own  con- 
sumption, or  for  cum-shaws  (presents).  Some  of  this  tea  was 
presented  to  us,  and  the  delicious  flavor  and  aroma  of  the  same 
is  deeply  engraved  or  engrafted  on  the  tablets  of  our  mental 
organization,  and  the  heart  of  our  memory. 

"  Many  of  the  mandarins  and  wealthy  are  as  curious  in  their 
collection  of  teas  as  our  connoisseurs  of  the  juice  of  the  grape 
are  in  their  cellars  of  wine.  The  amateur  of  tea  will  feel  as 
much  pride,  and  derive  as  much  pleasure  from  the  commenda- 
tion of  a  judicious  friend,  who  has  tasted  his  various  teas,  as  an 
Englishman  would  experience  after  producing  his  various  wines, 
and  receiving  the  praises  of  a  good  judge.  Notwithstanding 
this  national  taste  for  teas,  a  Chinaman  is  by  no  means  a 
member  of  the  temperance  society,  as  all  we  have  come  across 
have  a  great  partiality  for  liquors,  more  especially  cherry 
brandy,  which  is  the  favorite  tipple  of  a  Chinaman,  belong  he 
to  what  class  he  may ;  of  this  beverage,  a  Chinaman  will  imbibe 
an  incredibly  large  quantity  in  a  very  small  space  of  time. 

"The  mode  of  making  tea  in  China  is  similar  to  that  by 
which  coffee  is  made  in  Turkey,  namely,  by  putting  the  ingredi- 
ent into  the  vessel  from  which  it  is  to  be  drank.  The  tea-leaves 
are  put  into  a  small  cup  or  bowl,  which  has  a  lid  or  cover,  boil- 
1 A  catty  is  about  one  pound  and  a  quarter. 


THE  STORY  OF  TEA  213 

ing  water  is  poured  over  it,  and  instantly  covered,  to  prevent 
the  escape  of  the  aroma.  In  about  five  minutes,  they  consider 
the  infusion  as  complete,  and  drink  the  tea  without  the  addition 
of  either  milk  or  sugar.  The  bowl,  or  cup,  is  usually  placed  in 
a  small  filigree  silver  stand,  somewhat  the  shape  of  a  boat. 
These  stands,  or  saucers,  are  frequently  most  beautifully  and 
curiously  enamelled,  or  chased ;  the  lid  of  the  bowl  is  used  as  a 
spoon,  the  tea  being  sipped  from  it  after  it  has  been  dipped  out 
of  the  cup." 

The  above  description  suggests  that  the  tea  habit  may  lead  to 
the  use  of  stronger  beverages.  But  this  subject,  important  as  it 
is,  we  must  leave  to  the  sociologist. 


CHAPTER  XV. 
A   DESEET   INN 

THERE  was  an  immense  tea-shop  or  "  hong  "  at  Nijni,  at  which 
traders  from  all  countries  used  to  gather.  It  was  a  tea-drinking, 
story-telling  place,  and  there  the  party  were  wont  to  come  on 
sunny  afternoons  and  early  evenings,  and  there  some  curious 
stories  of  a  light  and  amusing  kind  were  told.  One  of  these 
was  by  an  old  English  traveller  and  trader. 


A   TALE   OF   THE   CARAVAN   TEA 

AN  inn  stood  on  the  verge  of  the  Desert  of  Gobi.  It  was 
near  a  town  where  caravans  rested.  The  caravans  carried  teas 
into  Russia,  and  returned  with  money,  and  the  innkeeper 
became  rich,  and  was  a  collector  of  the  customs,  and  every- 
thing that  he  touched  seemed  to  turn  into  gold.  He  was  a  Jew, 
and  was  called  Jocobi.  He  was  somewhat  avaricious,  and  his 
avarice  grew  with  his  gains. 

The  place  was  called  the  Caravansary  of  Jocobi  the  Jew. 

It  grew  in  size.  It  was  at  first  a  walled  house  with  beaten 
floors,  where  the  post  riders  could  throw  down  their  mail-bags 
and  lie  down  in  their  blankets  and  rest  after  a  dust  storm. 

Jocobi  spread  white  tents  around  it,  and  made  a  walled  garden 
there. 

Queer  people  lodged  there,  wanderers,  fakirs,  Buddhist  priests, 
people  with  arms,  bows,  exiles  from  Russia,  outcasts  from  Siberia, 


A    TALE    OF    THE   CARAVAN   TEA  215 

China,  and  India,  strange  Tartars  of  whom  no  one  seemed  to 
know.  Such  people  came  with  the  night  and  went  with  the  day. 
They  were  as  worlds  to  themselves. 

But  for  whatever  service  he  rendered  these  people  of  the  fierce 
sun  and  the  dust  storms,  Jocobi  made  large  charges,  and  his 
clayey  walls  and  white  tents  enlarged. 

I  once  made  a  contract  with  some  English  people  to  take 
them  over  the  desert.  It  was  in  the  days  of  the  Caravan  Tea. 

There  had  arisen  an  opinion  in  England  that  caravan  teas,  or 
those  brought  to  near  posts  by  caravans,  were  better  than  those 
shipped  from  Canton  or  Hong  Kong.  So  the  people  of  wealth 
and  luxury  were  willing  to  pay  liberal  prices  for  them.  The 
name  sounded  well ;  it  created  a  great  expectation  by 
suggestion. 

These  Englishmen  were  seeking  a  way  to  export  teas  by  cara- 
vans, to  be  sold  in  English  markets  at  large  profits. 

So  we  set  out  from  purple  Pekin  and  came  to  the  Desert  Inn. 

I  had  never  met  Jocobi  before,  and  I  found  him  all  smiles, 
and  a  very  spirit  of  accommodation.  He  said : 

"  Hospitality,  thy  name  is  the  Desert  Inn.  It  makes  my 
heart  light  to  offer  the  hospitality  of  mine  inn  to  the  English. 
The  people  of  the  white  isle,  old  Albion,  are  a  great  people  ; 
they  appreciate  hospitality ;  my  best  mats  are  yours ;  you  shall 
be  feasted  here,  and  shall  drink  caravan  teas,  made  in  the  cup 
by  Boabditti." 

Then  he  called,  "  Boabditti ! " 

A  man  with  a  dark  visage,  all  bows  and  smiles,  appeared. 

"  You  will  make  for  these  English  merchants  caravan  tea." 

Boabditti  soon  reappeared.  He  brought  in  cups  of  steaming 
tea.  They  filled  the  great  room  with  fragrance,  as  they  were 
set  down  on  little  tables  about  the  place. 

Next  Jocobi  offered  the  choicest  cigars,  imported  from 
Havana  in  the  blue  Antilles,  —  the  finest  in  all  the  world. 


216  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

Figs  were  brought. 

"  These  came  from  Smyrna,"  said  Jocobi ;  "  I  furnish  no  others 
to  travellers  who  come  here  from  the  West.  I  only  offer  my 
best  to  travellers  from  the  West.  Great  and  renowned  is  the 
hospitality  of  the  Desert  Inn.  The  traveller,  he  wrap  his  cloak 
about  him  in  the  dark  storm  of  the  desert,  but  heaven  herself 
wraps  her  divine  mantle  about  him  when  he  sinks  down  to  rest 
in  the  Desert  Inn.  Jocobi,  he  haf  a  heart  for  the  comfort  of  all 
mankind." 

The  supper  was  ample  for  a  desert  inn. 

"  I  serves  chops  for  Englishmen,"  said  Jocobi.  "  The  Bud- 
dhist he  no  eats  flesh,  but  I  know  what  it  is  that  the  Englishmen 
like,  and  I  put  my  whole  heart  to  serve  the  people  after  their 
habit.  I  eats  sheep  myself." 

Wines,  —  he  served  the  finest  to  those  of  the  party  who  used 
wines. 

"  There  are  no  wines  in  all  the  East  so  fine  as  those  at  the 
Desert  Inn,"  said  he,  "  and  nothing  is  too  good  for  the  English- 
men from  the  throne  of  the  seas." 

His  divans  were  covered  with  choice  silks,  and  his  mats  were 
deftly  woven,  and  were  picture  parables. 

"  We  have  not  met  in  all  the  world  greater  hospitality  than 
here,"  said  one  of  the  Englishmen  on  the  next  morning,  when 
coffee  filled  the  dining-room  with  fragrance.  "  I  should  like  to 
stay  here  for  a  week." 

There  was  a  New  Englander  in  the  party  of  five.  He  asked 
a  question  that  presented  a  new  thought  to  the  Englishmen 
among  all  this  boundless  Oriental  hospitality. 

"  I  wonder  what  the  Jocobi  will  charge  us,"  asked  he. 

"  Probably  nothing,"  said  one  of  the  Englishmen.  "  This  inn 
must  stand  for  hospitality,  and  the  Jew  is  rich.  What  arrange- 
ment did  you  make  with  him  ?  "  asked  he  of  me. 

"  None,"  said  I.     "  The  way  that  he  met  us,  with  outstretched 


A    TALE    OF    THE    CARAVAN    TEA  217 

arms  and  salams,  took  away  my  senses.  I  will  ask  him  for  his 
bill  for  tea,  breakfast,  and  lodging,  saying  that  we  will  leave  the 
place  before  noon." 

So  I  went  to  his  desk,  and  he  pondered  with  uplifted  finger. 

"  I  have  been  thinking,"  said  he. 

He  continued  to  think,  and  set  down  items  and  thought  again. 

"  Caravan  tea,"  he  said,  "  that  caravan  tea  costs  money." 

"  All  tea  is  caravan  tea  here,"  said  I. 

"  Not  unless  it  is  going  to  England,"  said  he. 

I  saw  the  difference. 

He  at  last  came  to  me  with  his  bill. 

"  I  should  be  lof  (loath)  to  charge  the  gentlemen  from  the 
West  anything,  but  all  of  the  foods  I  have  furnished  are  very 
expensive.  Each  little  item  represents,  it  does,  the  best  that 
the  world  can  afford.  I  haf  here  charged  you  a  sovereign  apiece 
for  some  little  figs,  but  they  came  from  the  gardens  of  a  palace, 
by  Smyrna's  far  waters.  The  ship  that  brought  them  cost 
money,  and  the  pilot  was  drowned.  And  the  sheeps,  they  came 
from  England,  in  cans,  in  boxes,  and  they  are  the  sheeps  of 
the  lord  of  the  isle.  It  is  much  I  haf  to  charge  you  for  them. 
I  get  such  things  for  hospitality.  I  serve  the  world,  not  for 
mine  own  self,  but  for  hospitality.  I  gif  Englishmen  my  best. 
I  honor  and  love  the  English." 

"  How  much  is  your  bill  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  It  am  twenty  pound,  just  that  for  the  sake  of  hospitality. 
That  is  a  moderate  charge,  a  very  moderate  charge,  considering 
what  you  have  had ;  the  caravans,  the  ships,  the  sheeps  of  the 
English  lord,  and  all." 

"  An  hundred  dollars  for  supper,  breakfast,  and  lodging  for 
six  people ! "  exclaimed  the  New  Englander.  "  I  won't  pay  it 
—  or  my  part  of  it.  This  is  outrageous." 

"  A  clear  swindle,"  said  one  of  the  Englishmen.  "  I  will  not 
pay  my  part  of  it.  I  will  appeal  to  the  judge." 


218  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

"  You  will  appeal  to  the  judge  ? "  said  Jocobi.  "  Well,  then, 
appeal  to  the  judge.  I  am  agreed." 

"  I  will  appeal  to  the  judge,"  said  another  Englishman. 

"  Very  well,"  and  Jocobi  began  to  laugh.  "  You  will  appeal 
to  the  judge."  He  sat  down. 

"  Ha,  ha,  ha,  ho,  ho !  well,  that  makes  me  shake  —  it  is  so 
comical  —  you  will  appeal  to  the  judge  !  " 

"  Yes,  you  desert  villain,"  said  Englishman  number  two. 

"  He,  he,  ho  !  —  that  makes  me  laugh.  You  will  appeal  to  the 
judge!" 

"  Yes,"  said  Englishman  number  one,  a  portly  man,  and  the 
leader  of  the  party  of  travellers,  "  I  will  appeal  to  the  judge,  and 
he  shall  let  the  law  take  its  course.  You  are  a  desert  robber. 
I  will  go  to  the  judge  now." 

"  Well,  go  —  ha,  ha,  ha !  —  ho,  ho  !  —  go." 

The  portly  Englishman  began  to  turn  around  in  perplexity. 
Then  he  turned  to  Jocobi. 

"  Will  you  submit  the  case  to  the  judge  ?  " 

"  Jocobi  will  submit  the  case  to  the  judge.     He  loves  justice." 

"Will  you  go  with  us  to  the  judge  ? " 

"  I  will  go  with  you." 

"  Is  he  a  just  man  ?  " 

"  He  is  a  just  man  —  he  will  see  that  Jocobi  has  his  pay  for 
spreading  out  all  the  best  that  the  world  affords  before  his 
guests.  He  knows  the  value  of  caravan  teas,  and  figs  from 
Smyrna,  and  wines  that  are  forty  years  old.  He  is  a  just  man, 
and  he  will  render  you  justice,  and  — 

"  Are  you  sure  ?" 

"  I  am  sure." 

"  Well,  we  will  submit  the  case  to  him." 

"  That  is  good  —  so  will  I,  and  you  will  abide  by  his 
decision  ?  " 

"  We  will  abide  by  his  decision,"  said  the  portly  Englishman. 


A    TALE    OF    THE    CARAVAN    TEA  219 

"  Come,  let  us  go.  How  far  shall  we  have  to  go  ?  Is  it  very  far 
to  the  judge  ?  " 

"  No  very  far,"  said  Jocobi. 

"  Where  is  the  judge's  office  ? "  asked  the  portly  Englishman. 

"  It  is  here." 

"  In  the  Desert  Inn  ? " 

"  In  the  Desert  Inn." 

"  What  is  the  judge's  name  ?" 

"  Jocobi." 

"  Not  you  ? " 

"  The  same.  The  Viceroy  he  seeks  for  a  just  judge  for  the 
desert.  So  he  finds  me  here,  and  he  makes  me  judge.  I  have 
decided  your  case  already  :  it  is  one  twenty  pounds  for  the  choic- 
est service  on  earth  —  caravans,  ships,  sheeps  ;  it  is  benevolence 
-  it  is  hospitality.  1  serve  the  world.  You  will  pay  me  the 
one  hundred  dollar.  So  decides  the  judge,  and  you  said  that 
you  would  abide  by  his  decision." 

The  twenty  pounds  were  paid,  and  I  received  a  lesson  which 
I  have  never  forgotten,  but  have  often  turned  to  good  advantage 
in  life. 

At  Nijni  Mrs.  Barnard  obtained  a  glimpse  of  the  great  empire 
of  the  Czar.  She  admired  the  Czar  for  the  peace  efforts  that  he 
had  made.  A  tradition  of  the  imperial  family  came  to  her  at 
Moscow,  and  she  gave  it  to  verse. 


220  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 


THE   WHITE    CZARS   THREE 
I. 

ALEXANDER  I. 

ALEXANDER,  Czar  of  the  Russias, 

To  the  princes  of  Vladimir's  Halls : 
"  O  princes,  my  mantle  hangs  heavy, 

And  to  you  iny  conscience  calls. 
To  the  golden  tombs  and  hollow 

Soon  Death  will  summon  me  ; 
Go,  —  free  the  serf  from  bondage, 

And  the  world  from  carnage  free  !  " 

To  the  golden  tombs  and  hollow, 

To  the  dusty  tombs  and  cold, 
They  bore  the  Czar,  «  The  Blessed," 

'Mid  lamps  of  burning  gold. 
But  thoughts  of  high  suggestion 

Are  impearled  in  deeds  sublime, 
And  words  of  conscience  ever 

Burn  into  stars  of  time  I 

II. 

ALEXANDER    II. 

It  was  midnight  on  the  Finland, 

And  o'er  the  wastes  of  snow, 
From  the  crystal  sky  of  Winter 

The  lamps  of  God  hung  low. 
A  sea  of  ice  was  the  Xeva, 

In  the  white  light  of  the  stars, 
And  it  locked  in  its  arms  of  silence 

The  city  of  the  Czars. 

The  palace  was  wrapped  in  shadow, 
And,  dark  in  the  starlit  space, 

The  monolith  rose  before  it 
From  its  battle-trophied  base, 


THE    WHITE  CZARS    THESE  221 

And  the  cross  that  crowned  the  column 

Seemed  reaching  to  the  stars 
O'er  the  white  streets,  hushed  in  silence, 

Round  the  palace  of  the  Czars. 

The  chapel's  mullioned  windows 

Are  flushed  with  a  sudden  light;  • 

Who  comes  to  the  shadowy  altar 

In  the  silence  of  the  night? 
What  prince  with  a  deep  heart  burden 

Approaches  the  jewelled  shrine  ? 
'Tis  thy  son,  ()  Nicholas,  faithful 

To  thy  visioned  thought  divine  ! 

In  that  still  church  strains  celestial, 

Like  Bethlehem's,  fill  his  ears, 
And  the  mystic  words,  "Good  tidings" 

And  "  Peace  on  Earth  "  he  hears. 
The  priests  hear  not  the  voices 

As  the  golden  lamps  low  swing, 
But  kneel  by  the  muffled  stranger, 

In  whose  prayers  the  angels  sing. 

'Tis  the  Czar,  whose  word  in  the  morning 

Shall  make  the  Russias  free, 
From  the  Xeva  to  the  Ural, 

From  the  Steppe  to  the  winter  sea ; 
AVho  speaks,  and  a  thousand  steeples 

Ring  freedom  to  every  man,  — 
From  the  serf  on  the  white  Ladoga, 

To  the  fisher  of  Astrachan. 

The  morn  sets  its  crowns  of  rubies 

In  snows  of  turret  and  spire, 
And  far  shines  the  sea  of  Finland, 

Its  crystal  plains  mingled  with  fire. 
Ring,  bells  on  the  Xeva  and  Volga, 

Ye  bells  of  the  Caspian  Sea  : 
For  a  Voice  in  the  morning  aurora 

Has  set  the  Russias  free  ! 


222  TRAVELLER  TALES  OF  CHINA 

III. 

NICHOLAS    II. 

The  martyr,  Alexander  ; 

The  nobles  bear  his  bier 
Down  the  golden  tombs  and  hollow 

Of  the  Halls  of  Vladimir  ! 
Still  over  war-spent  Europe 

War  holds  her  sullen  reign, 
And  sink  in  purple  oceans 

The  shattered  ships  of  Spain. 

A  trump  rends  the  air  of  the  Norlands  ; 

It  rings  from  the  Baltic  clear  ; 
It  rises  in  white  auroras 

O'er  the  halls  of  Vladimir. 
The  Aryan  race  it  summons 

The  world  from  war  to  free  ! 
Who  blows  Heaven's  victor  trumpets? 

The  last  of  the  White  Czars  three  ! 

The  last  Czar  heard  the  call  in  the  heavens 

And  God's  own  trumpet  took, 
And  filled  all  the  lands  with  its  music, 

And  the  fortressed  nations  shook  ; 
Then  sunk  on  his  throne,  glory-smitten, 

His  work  in  the  call  but  begun, 
But  thy  ukase,  Seer  of  the  Finland, 

Shall  follow  the  march  of  the  sun  ! 

For  each  thought  of  high  suggestion 

Is  impearled  in  deeds  sublime  ; 
The  words  of  conscience  ever 

Burn  into  stars  of  time  ; 
And  the  silver  trump  that  sounded 

In  the  white  auroras  forth, 
The  world  to  peace  shall  waken, 

O  messenger  of  the  North ! 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  SIBERIAN  EAILEOAD  — THE  NEW  WAY  ABOUND 

THE  WOELD 

AFTER  a  week  or  more  at  Lower  Novgorod,  during  the 
gathering  for  the  opening  of  the  Fair,  our  tourists  prepared  to 
go  to  Stretinsk,  on  their  way  to  Manchuria,  Corea,  and  Pekin. 

The  journey  by  rail,  as  arranged  at  Moscow,  would  be  from 
Moscow  to  Stretinsk,  with  Yaman  Tau,  Omsk,  Tomsk,  Krasno- 
yarsk, and  Irkutsk  by  the  way.  At  Stretinsk,  the  party  would 
take  the  steamer  for  the  Amoor,  and  would  proceed  by  the 
Amoor  to  Khabarovka,  and  thence  by  rail  to  Vladivostok.  The 
fare  from  Moscow,  first-class,  would  be  183  roubles,  a  rouble, 
or  ruble,  having  the  value  of  about  fifty-seven  cents  in  our 
coin,  or  one  hundred  copper  copecks  in  Russian  coin. 

The  second-class  service,  which  is  nearly  as  good  as  the  first- 
class,  would  be  considerably  less.  The  trip  of  six  thousand 
miles  might  be  accomplished  by  this  route  for  thirty  dollars. 
The  cost  of  living  would  be  some  three  roubles  a  day,  or  less. 

Vladivostok,  metropolis  of  the  northeast  of  the  Russian 
Chinese  world,  is  leaping  into  life,  and  should  there  ever  again 
be  naval  contests  in  the  world,  it  would  seem  likely  they  may  be 
on  the  Sea  of  Japan  or  on  the  Yellow  Sea.  The  scenery  around 
the  rising  city  is  very  noble,  and  our  tourists  had  seen  pictures 
of  the  place.  The  city  has  a  rival  in  Port  Arthur,  not  far 
distant,  on  the  Yellow  Sea. 

The  log-house  villages  along  the  railroad  route  are  alive  with 
hucksters,  who  offer  bottles  of  milk  for  ten  copecks  (less  than 

223 


224 


TRAVELLER  TALES  OF  CHINA 


ten  cents),  and  hard-boiled  eggs  for  less  than  ten  cents  a  dozen, 
fried  fish  at  low  prices,  black  bread,  and  innocent  beer.  Many 
of  these  people  are  vegetarians,  and  some  of  them  are  dissenters 
from  the  Greek  Church.  In  summer,  flowers  are  offered  for 
sale. 

The  better  class   of  cars  have  sleeping-berths,  or   seats   so 


.. 


STEAMKR    OV    THK    A: 


constructed  that  they  can  be  turned  into  "  sleepers."  The  hard 
nine  days'  journey  is  made  very  comfortable,  even  in  second-class 
travel.  The  third-class  travel  is  rather  hard,  the  fare  being 
only  about  fourteen  dollars. 

The  nine  days'  travel  would  have  been  weary,  especially  to 
Lucy,  but  the  little  girl  asked  Ah  Hue  for  jataka,  or  other 
Oriental  tales,  and  his  store  of  such  stories  seemed  to  be  end- 


THE  MONEY  POT  225 

less.  He  told  many  of  them  to  Lucy  in  these  gray  distances, 
where  everything  seemed  the  same,  but  the  other  English  and 
American  travellers  listened  to  them  in  the  little  parlor  on 
wheels. 

THE    MONEY   POT,   OR   DON'T  BURY  YOUR  GOLD  IN 
ANOTHER  MAN'S  WOOD 

THERE  was  an  old  landholder  who  had  a  girl  wife  and  a  son 
by  a  former  marriage.  He  had  married  the  girl  because  he  was 
lonely  ;  she  looked  up  to  him  as  a  father,  but  was  fond  of  young 
people,  and  after  a  time  he  became  jealous  of  her  association 
with  those  of  her  own  age,  and  reasoned  : 

"  As  soon  as  I  am  dead  she  will  marry  a  young  man,  and  my 
gold  will  go  to  make  some  boor  to  live  in  luxury.  This  shall 
not  be.  I  will  bury  iny  gold  and  leave  nothing  but  my  land  on 
which  my  girl  wife  can  live.  Why  should  I  leave  her  more?" 

So  he  took  with  him  a  trusty  slave,  and  went  out  to  bury  his 
gold  in  a  money  pot,  and  he  said  to  his  slave : 

"I  shall  not  hide  the  money  in  my  own  wood,  but  in  my 
neighbor's  wood.  They  might  find  it  in  my  own  wood." 

So  he  went  into  the  wood  of  his  neighbor,  who  was  also  his 
friend,  and  buried  his  gold  under  a  lusty  tree,  where  was  a  hard 
rock. 

And  he  said  to  his  slave : 

"  My  trusty  servant,  you  have  been  true  to  me,  and  the 
noblest  thing  that  can  be  said  of  any  man  is  that  he  has  a  true 
heart.  I  want  my  young  son  to  have  my  gold,  and  I  would  not 
have  my  young  wife  spend  it  on  a  second  husband.  You  shall 
keep  the  secret  of  the  treasure.  When  I  am  gone,  and  my  son 
becomes  of  age,  take  my  son  here,  and  show  him  the  place  of 
the  money  pot,  and  tell  him  I  loved  him  and  was  wise  in 
providing  for  him." 


226  TRAVELLEB  TALES  OF  CHINA 

So  they  buried  the  money  under  the  spreading  tree  at  the 
foot  of  the  high,  hard  rock. 

The  old  landholder  died,  and  they  searched  for  his  gold,  but 
could  not  find  it,  and  the  girl  wife  married  again,  and  the  old 
man's  son  became  as  a  common  servant  to  the  new  husband. 

The  former  wife  began  to  question  the  slave  in  regard  to  the 
old  man's  gold. 

"  It  must  be  hidden  on  the  place,  and  you  must  guess  where 
it  is,"  said  she. 

"  If  it  be  hidden  on  this  place,  I  do  not  know  where  it  is." 

The  son  grew  up  and  became  of  age,  but  the  old  man's  friend 
and  neighbor  had  died,  and  the  wood  and  tree  and  the  rock  had 
been  sold,  and  the  new  landholder  of  the  place  was  a  very  testy 
man,  but  he  had  a  legal  mind,  and  they  made  him  a  judge. 

One  day  the  slave  said  to  the  old  man's  son : 

"  You  are  now  of  age,  and  I  have  a  secret  to  tell  you,  —  a 
secret  that  your  father  confided  to  me.  I  am  going  to  take  you 
to  the  place  where  he  buried  his  gold  in  a  money  pot.  It  shall 
now  be  yours." 

The  old  slave  and  the  young  man  went  to  the  wood  with  a 
spade,  but  the  girl  wife,  who  was  a  woman  now,  saw  them  u<>- 
ing  away  together,  each  with  a  spade,  and  she  followed  them  at 
a  distance.  She  had  long  believed  that  the  slave  knew  where 
the  treasure  was  hidden. 

She  saw  them  go  to  the  great  tree  in  the  wood,  and  begin  to 
dig  at  the  foot  of  the  great  rock.  Then  she  came  upon  them 
like  a  fury. 

"  I  have  found  you  out,"  she  cried.  "  The  treasure  was  buried 
here  to  keep  it  from  me.  This  shall  not  be.  I  will  go  back  and 
call  my  husband.  The  treasure  is  mine.  I  will  have  justice, 
justice  ;  I  have  been  wronged,  and  the  wrong  should  be  righted." 

So  she  went  for  her  husband,  and  he  came  running  to  the 
place  with  a  spade.  He  quickly  found  the  money  pot. 


THE   MONEY  POT  227 

"  It  belongs  to  the  son,"  said  the  slave. 

"  It  belongs  to  me,"  said  the  wife. 

"  It  belongs  to  my  wife,"  said  the  husband,  "  and  I  will 
defend  her  rights  with  my  life." 

"  Touch  not  the  money  pot,"  said  the  wife.  "  I  will  go  and 
call  the  owner  of  the  land ;  he  is  a  judge,  and  he  shall  give 
judgment  in  the  matter.  Stay  where  you  are  by  the  rock." 

The  three  awaited  her  return.  She  came  back  with  the 
judge,  the  owner  of  the  wood.  The  latter  sat  down  on  the  rock 
under  the  tree  to  hear  the  case. 

The  slave  said  : 

"  My  master  buried  the  money  pot  here  for  the  use  of  his  son 
when  he  should  become  of  age.  He  entrusted  the  secret  to  me." 

The  wife  said  :  "  The  property  of  my  husband  was  mine.  He 
hid  the  treasure  away  from  me  and  defrauded  me.  Now  to 
whom  does  the  gold  belong  ?  " 

"  To  the  owner  of  the  land,"  said  the  judge.     "  It  is  mine." 

The  wife  shrieked. 

"  He  should  not  have  buried  his  gold  in  another  man's  wood," 
said  she. 

"  But  the  slave  has  been  faithful,  so  I  will  divide  the  treasure 
with  him." 

The  wife  shrieked  again. 

"  Never  entrust  to  another  man's  estate  what  you  should  keep 
for  yourself,"  said  she. 

The  judge  kept  the  treasure  for  a  time,  then  divided  it  with 
the  slave,  and  the  slave  divided  his  part  of  the  treasure  with  the 
son. 

The  slave  became  wise  and  a  counsellor.  Among  the  wise 
things  that  he  used  to  say  was : 

"  Never  bury  your  gold  in  another  man's  land,  —  we  can 
never  tell  what  may  happen.  The  changes  of  life  are  many. 
Never  fool  yourself." 


228  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 


JATAKA  STORY --THE  ALARMED  HARE 

THERE  was  once  a  little  hare  who  borrowed  trouble.  He  sat 
under  the  sacred  trees  and  thought  much  of  the  dangers  of  life. 
One  day  he  thought  this  thought : 

"  If  the  earth  were  to  fall,  what  would  become  of  me  ?  " 

The  thought  greatly  troubled  him,  when  there  dropped  a 
mango  from  the  tree. 

"  The  earth  is  falling  ! "  he  said.  "  I  will  go  and  alarm  the 
world." 

He  scampered  off,  and  met  another  hare. 

"  Run,"  he  said,  "  run  for  your  life  ;  the  earth  is  falling ! " 

"  Where  is  it  falling  ? "  asked  the  hare. 

"  I  feel  it,  —  run,  run  !  " 

The  hare  scampered  after  him,  and  they  said  to  other  hares : 

"  The  earth  is  breaking  up,  —  run  !  " 

The  hares  all  ran  and  told  a  hundred  thousand  hares,  which 
all  ran,  crying  out : 

"  The  earth  is  falling,  —  run  !  " 

The  deer  in  the  forest  meadow  saw  them  running,  and  threw 
up  their  heads,  and  asked : 

"  What  is  it  ?  " 

And  when  they  heard  that  the  earth  was  caving  in,  they  ran 
after  the  hares,  a  hundred  thousand  of  them. 

The  elks  saw  them  all  running. 

"What  is  it?"  they  asked. 

"  The  earth  is  caving  in,"  said  the  deer,  "  run  for  your  lives  ! " 

Then  the  elks  followed  the  hares  and  deer,  and  they  all  met 
the  tigers. 

"  What  is  it  ?  "  asked  the  tigers. 

"  The  earth  is  going  down,"  said  the  elks.     "  Run  !  " 

Then  the  tigers  all  ran  after  the  nervous  little  hares,  and 


JATAKA    STORY— THE  ALARMED  HARE  229 

they  told  the  lions  that  the  earth  was  all  breaking  up,  as  by  an 
earthquake,  and  the  lions  ran  after  the  tigers. 

The  lions  told  the  elephants  that  there  had  been  a  great 
earthquake,  and  that  the  earth  was  all  breaking  up  and  cav- 
ing in. 

The  elephants  trumpeted,  and  ran.  They  met  the  rhinoce- 
rosses  at  the  river,  and  called : 

"  The  earthquake,  the  earthquake  !     Run  !  " 

The  rhinocerosses  wallowed  out  of  the  slimy  rivers,  and 
waddled  after  the  rest. 

They  all  ran  and  ran,  until  they  had  no  breath  left,  and  then 
fell  over  each  other  in  a  desert  plain. 

In  the  red  morning  the  rhinocerosses  asked : 

"  Who  heard  the  earthquake  ? " 

"  The  elephants  know  all  about  it,"  said  the  lions. 

The  elephants  were  asked. 

«  The  lions  know." 

But  the  lions  said  :  "  The  tigers  know." 

The  tigers  said : 

«  The  elks  know." 

The  elks  snid  : 

."  The  deer  know." 

The  deer  said : 

"  The  hares  know." 

The  hares  said : 

"  The  little  hare  knows." 

The  little  hare  said  : 

"  The  tree  told  me,  and  warned  me  to  flee." 

Then  the  animals  wondered  greatly  why  they  had  all  run,  and 
a  wise  elephant  said : 

"  Let  us  all  go  back  to  the  tree." 

They  all  went  back  to  the  tree,  a  long  journey,  since  they 
had  run  so  far.  And  they  found  there  a  Bodhisatta  (one  who 


230  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

is  becoming  a  Buddha  by  rebirth),  and  they  asked  him  about 
the  earthquake,  but  he  only  said : 

"  I  saw  a  mango  fall,  and  this  little  hare  jumped  and  ran." 

Then  said  the  little  hare  : 

"  If  it  were  not  an  earthquake,  it  was  a  twig  that  shook,  when 
the  mango  fell.  Something  stirred,  —  I  am  sure  of  that,  —  and 
it  is  best  to  run  when  anything  stirs.  One  can  never  tell  what 
is  going  to  happen." 

Among  the  strange  people  here  were  Kurds  from  the  region 
of  Mt.  Ararat  and  the  Tigris.  These  people  live  in  tents,  and 
had  brought  their  tents  with  them. 

There  is  but  one  place  where  the  earliest  people  of  the  world 
gather  —  that  is  Nijni.  One  may  see  there  the  descendants  of 
the  paternal  races  of  mankind.  To  take  the  hand  of  a  Kurd 
seems  like  meeting  an  Adam  or  an  Abraham.  One  now  may 
sometimes  meet  these  people  on  the  cars. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

THE   AMOOR—  MANCHURIA,   THE   PROVINCE   OF 
DESTINY 

LOOK  upon  the  map  of  Asia ;  you  may  have  occasion  to  do  so 
many  times  in  the  next  twenty  years.  So  study  it  now.  You 
will  find  on  the  west  coast  an  outline  like  New  England.  Look 
at  the  Chinese  Empire  as  far  as  the  great  wall.  What  lies 
between  it  and  Asiatic  Siberia  ?  Mongolia  and  Manchuria,  and 
the  Desert  of  Gobi. 

Perhaps  you  know  but  little  about  this  part  of  the  world.  Is 
there  much  to  be  known  ?  Much.  From  these  mountain-walled 
desert  lands  have  gone  the  cyclone  armies  that  swept  the  world. 
The  Huns  who  toppled  Rome  gathered  fire  here  as  from  a  single 
spark.  Here  were  the  fields  of  Timur,  or  Tamaline.  Here  the 
Tartar  chiefs  grew  and  gathered  force  until  they  swept  down  on 
China,  captured  Pekin,  and  occupied  the  throne  as  the  Manchu 
dynasty. 

Mongolia  ?  It  includes  the  active  history  of  Indo-Chinese, 
the  Tibetans,  and  Tartars  —  the  great  nomadic  people  of  the 
world.  These  nomads  founded  the  Median  Empire ;  they  flour- 
ished before  Nineveh  ;  they  wandered.  They  may  have  been 
exiles  who  founded  the  American  cities  on  the  Pacific  coast  — 
we  cannot  tell. 

They  founded  China  —  two  thousand  years  before  the  Chris- 
tian era.  They  were  the  Scythians,  the  Huns.  Where  they 
went  was  terror,  desolations.  Genges-Khan,  one  of  their 
chiefs,  conquered  almost  all  Asia.  His  family  held  China  and 
Russia.  They  founded  the  great  Mogul  empire  at  Delhi. 

231 


232  TRAVELLER   TALES  OF  CHINA 

The  empires  of  the  Mongols  broke  asunder.  For  a  time 
Turkey  was  the  glory  of  the  race,  and  afterward  became  the 
shame  of  the  East. 

Their  religion  is  Buddhism,  and  it  embraces  some  five  hun- 
dred millions,  or  almost  half  of  the  human  race. 

The  dissolving  empires  of  the  Mongolians  now  face  two  new 
powers  —  steam  and  electricity.  Science  has  proved  their 
sacred  books  untrue,  and  yet  there  is  some  truth  in  their 
teachings  so  far  as  relates  to  hidden  powers  and  the  transcen- 
dental will  of  the  soul.  The  unseen  life  force  is  all  they  claim, 
and  we  may  not  limit  its  exercise. 

Christianity  is  the  supreme  teaching  of  the  world,  and  the  old 
Mongol  empire  must  accept  the  highest  teaching,  or  else  it  must 
fail  and  fall. 

The  Greek  cross  rises  over  it  all,  the  crescent  pales,  and  the 
simple  gospel  of  obedience  to  the  laws  of  life  inborn  in  the  soul 
is  the  end  of  all. 

On  the  map,  as  I  said,  you  will  find  an  outline  like  the  New 
England  coast;  not  only  that,  but  like  the  United  States  along 
the  Atlantic  coast  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
You  may  outline  Florida  there. 

Our  tourists  approached  this  coast  by  the  Amoor.  Look  at 
the  Amoor  River  on  the  map.  It  was  once  a  river  of  destiny ; 
it  may  be  so  again. 

Our  travellers  found  themselves  on  a  huge,  rude  boat  churn- 
ing a  river  whose  traditions  are  as  old  as  Abraham.  They  were 
in  the  world  of  the  first  migrations. 

There  were  great  ice-breaking  machines  on  the  boat  in  winter, 
said  to  be  of  New  England  invention.  The  summer  service  was 
comfortable,  but  everything  about  the  river,  the  woods,  'and 
mountains  seemed  chill  and  old  and  strange. 

They  came,  after  some  days'  journey,  in  which  they  were  in 
peril  of  running  aground,  to  the  world's  new  city  —  VLADIVOSTOK. 


235 

They  were  now  in  China,  without  the  wall.  They  were  in 
the  region  between  the  once  two  empires,  the  mighty  deserts 
out  of  which  the  conquering  races  came  that  desolated  the  luxu- 
rious world. 

Let  us  here  give  you  a  picture  of  the  relations  of  Russia  and 
China  in  the  old  times  —  the  days  of  the  mighty  wall  which  our 
tourists  were  now  approaching. 


THE   MAGICIAN   IN   FIREWORK 

IN  1719  an  embassy  was  sent  from  Russia  to  the  Emperor  of 
China,  and  made  the  journey  from  St.  Petersburg  to  Pekin. 
The  ambassadors  were  accompanied  by  an  English  physician, 
John  Bell.  They  bore  presents,  and  the  Emperor  of  China 
desired  to  entertain  them  in  a  way  that  would  impress  them 
with  the  glory  of  his  empire, 

It  was  the  Emperor  Kamhi,  who  had  brought  to  perfection  the 
art  of  fireworks,  an  art  which  had  been  known  in  China  almost 
since  the  discovery  of  gunpowder  and  printing,  or  for  two  thou- 
sand years. 

The  Emperor  Kamhi  prepared  to  cause  the  heavens  to  blaze 
with  unwonted  splendor  during  the  long  series  of  receptions  that 
awaited  the  embassy. 

It  was  the  time  of  Peter  I.,  Czar  of  all  the  Russias.  At  this 
time  few  foreigners  passed  the  wall  of  China,  and  for  the  Chi- 
nese emperor  to  receive  an  embassy  from  a  neighboring  country 
was  a  matter  of  moment  and  significance. 

The  Russian  embassy  was  received  in  pomp.  Pekin  was  like 
a  fairy-land  when  it  came ;  feasts  were  spread  amid  hangings  of 
banners  and  bannerets  of  crimson,  green,  and  gold ;  bells  rang, 
gongs  sounded,  and  wonder-working  magicians  filled  the  evenings 
with  delight.  Kites  trailed  the  air ;  floating  dragons  and  men 


236  TRAVELLER    TALES  OF  CHINA 

seated  on  birds.  One  banquet  was  followed  by  another,  and  the 
choicest  foods  and  wines  were  served  in  golden  dishes. 

Presents  were  exchanged,  and  those  of  Kamhi  displayed 
wonderful  art. 

But  the  nights  of  astonishment  were  deferred  until  the  new 
moon  of  the  New  Year. 

Kamhi  had  wrought  miracles  in  fire  in  the  face  of  the  heavens. 
He  had  studied  the  arts  of  the  firework  makers,  and  had  caused 
the  roof  of  the  heavens  to  respond  to  his  fancies. 

The  night  of  the  new  moon  of  the  New  Year  came.  Pekin 
dressed  for  the  festival  of  fire  which  was  to  thrill  the  Russian 
ambassadors.  Those  nights  of  wonder  were  graphically  described 
by  Doctor  Bell. 

The  festival  was  to  be  continued  from  the  new  moon  to  the 
full  moon,  when  it  would  reach  its  height. 

The  embassy  were  invited  to  be  guests  at  the  imperial  palace 
on  the  29th  of  January,  when  the  moon  would  be  at  its  full. 
They  were  to  be  lodged  in  a  pavilion  of  a  garden,  on  a  canal.  On 
the  30th  the  court  and  grandees  assembled,  and  the  emperor 
appeared  in  person,  and  ascended  his  throne  amid  the  adoration 
of  a  glittering  and  awestruck  assembly. 

The  emperor  called  for  the  principal  Russian  ambassador. 

"  I  hear,"  he  said,  "  that  in  your  country,  when  you  drink  to 
the  czar's  health,  you  break  your  glasses.  I  approve  of  the 
tribute  to  health,  but  I  do  not  comprehend  what  you  mean 
by  the  breaking  of  the  glasses." 

It  signified  probably  that  the  person  of  the  ruler  was  so 
sacred  that  the  same  glasses  ought  not  to  be  used  twice  in 
celebrating  his  health. 

Sports  followed,  Tartar  wrestlers.  The  emperor  was  an  old 
man  and  had  a  tender  heart,  and  he  caused  the  wrestlers  and 
combatants  to  be  separated  when  they  became  brutal  and  bloody. 

The  next  night  came  the  glory  of  the  fireworks. 


THE  MAGICIAN  IN  FIREWORK  237 

Doctor  Bell  thus  describes  the  scene  in  old  English : 

"  About  five  of  the  clock  a  fignal  was  given  for  beginning 
to  play  off  the  fireworks,  by  a  rocket  let  fly  from  the  gallery 
where  the  emperor  fat;  and,  in  the  fpace  of  a  few  minutes, 
many  thoufand  lanthorns  were  lighted.  Thefe  lanthorns  were 
made  of  paper  of  different  colours,  red,  blue,  green,  and  yel- 
low, and  hung  on  pofts  about  six  feet  high,  fcattered  over 
all  the  garden,  which  exhibited  a  very  pleafant  profpect  to  the 
eye. 

"  Another  fignal  was  then  given  for  playing  off  the  rockets. 
They  fprung  upward  to  a  prodigious  height,  and  fell  down  in 
figures  of  ftars,  difplaying  a  great  variety  of  different  colours. 
The  rockets  were  accompanied  with  what  I  fhall  call  crackers, 
for  want  of  a  more  proper  name.  Their  explofion  refembled 
the  reports  of  many  guns,  fired  at  certain  intervals,  and  ex- 
hibited a  view  of  many  charming  colours  and  forms  of  fire. 
Thefe,  with  a  few  fireworks  of  different  kinds,  intermixed, 
continued  for  the  fpace  of  three  hours. 

"  Oppofite  to  the  gallery  where  the  emperor  fat  was  fuf- 
pended  a  large  round  veffel,  about  twenty  feet  in  diameter, 
between  two  pofts  about  thirty  feet  high.  A  rocket  fent  from 
the  gallery  lighted  a  match  hanging  from  the  veffel,  which 
immediately  caufed  the  bottom  of  it  to  drop  down  with  a  loud 
noife.  Then  fell  out  a  lattice,  or  grate-work,  all  on  fire,  and 
hung  between  the  veffel  and  the  ground,  burning  furioufly,  in 
various  colours.  This  continued  for  ten  minutes,  and  really 
exhibited  a  moft  curious  fight.  It  feems,  this  lattice-work  was 
compofed  of  materials  that  immediately  kindled,  on  being 
exposed  to  the  air,  for  no  perfon  was  feen  near  the  machine. 

"  This  grate-work  being  extinguifhed,  there  appeared  a  lighted 
match,  hanging  from  the  middle  of  the  veffel,  and  burning  up 
to  it.  As  foon  as  the  fire  reached  the  veffel,  thirty  fair  paper 
lanthorns  of  various  colours,  dropped  from  it,  and  hung  in  a 


238  TRAVELLER    TALES  OF  CHIXA 

ftraight  line  below  one  another,  between  it  and  the  ground, 
which  immediately  catched  fire  of  themfelves,  and  formed  a 
beautiful  and  well-proportioned  column  of  parti-colored  light. 
After  this,  fell  out  about  ten  or  twelve  pillars  of  the  fame  form, 
but  of  a  leffer  fize ;  thefe  alfo  took  fire  as  foon  as  they  dropped. 
This  fcene  continued  till  the  number  of  one  thoufand  lanthorns 
fell  from  the  veffel,  which  dirninifhed  every  time,  till  the  laft 
were  very  fmall.  I  niuft  confefs  this  prefented  a  delightful 
object  to  the  fpectators. 

"  I  could  not  help  being  furprifed  at  the  ingenuity  of  the  artift, 
in  crouding  fuch  a  number  of  lanthorns  into  fo  fmall  and  fimple 
a  machine  as  this  feemed  to  be ;  and,  at  the  fame  time,  with  fo 
much  order,  that  all  of  them  dropped  and  kindled  of  themfelves, 
with  equal  regularity,  as  if  he  had  let  them  fall  from  his  hand ; 
for  not  even  one  of  them  was  extinguifhed  by  accident,  or  in  the 
leaft  entangled  by  another.  This  concluded  the  firft  day's 
entertainment. 

"  The  31ft,  in  the  evening,  we  returned  to  court ;  where  was 
opened  a  new  fcene  of  fireworks,  which  continued,  with  great 
variety,  till  ten  o'clock  at  night.  The  1ft  of  February,  we 
went  again  to  court ;  where  the  fireworks  were  refumed  in  many 
different,  well-executed  defigns.  What  pleafed  me  raoft  was  a 
fmall  mount,  raifed  in  the  middle  of  the  garden,  from  which 
fprung  a  ftream  of  white  and  blue  fire,  in  imitation  of  water. 
The  top  of  the  mount  contained  a  cavity,  in  fhape  of  a  large 
urn,  from  which  the  fire  rofe  to  a  prodigious  height. 

"  Oppofite  to  the  gallery,  where  the  emperor  fat,  were  erected 
three  large  frames,  about  thirty  feet  high  each.  On  one  was  a 
monftrous  figure  of  a  dragon ;  on  the  fecond,  a  man  on  horfe- 
back  ;  and  the  third  prefented  an  elephant,  with  a  human  figure 
on  his  back.  All  thefe  were  compofed  of  a  deep  blue  fire,  and 
were  interwoven  with  vines  and  grapes,  hanging  about  on  all 
fides  of  white,  red,  and  blue  fire. 


THE  MAGICIAN  IN  FIBEWOBK  239 

"  Befide  thefe,  there  were  exhibited,  on  this  occafion,  many 
other  ingenious  defigns  of  fireworks,  which  far  furpaffed  any- 
thing of  the  kind  I  ever  faw,  though  I  have  been  prefent  at 
performances  of  this  nature,  exhibited  at  St.  Peterfburgh,  by 
the  beft  artifts  in  Europe.  Befide  the  art  difplayed  in  the 
contrivance  and  figure,  thefe  works  furnifhed,  in  particular,  a 
wonderful  variety  of  moft  beautiful  colours,  far  exceeding  my 
ability  to  defcribe.  I  muft  confefs,  they  greatly  outdid  my 
expectations,  and  even  common  fame,  which  feldom  leffens 
things  of  this  nature. 

"  The  following  day  the  emperor  gave  the  ambaffador  a 
private  audience,  and  enquired  how  he  liked  the  diverfions  and 
fireworks.  On  this  occafion,  the  emperor  repeated  what  has 
been  already  obferved  concerning  the  antiquity  of  illuminations 
compofed  of  gunpowder ;  and  added,  that,  although  fireworks  had 
been  known  in  China  for  more  than  two  thoufand  years,  he 
himfelf  had  made  many  improvements  upon  them,  and  brought 
them  to  their  prefent  perfection." 

The  sights  upon  the  shores  of  the  Amoor  revealed  to  the 
Barnards  a  new  world,  though  Ah  Hue  saw  in  it  a  very 
ancient  civilization.  On  one  side  of  the  river  were  Chinese 
settlements  here  and  there,  and,  in  all  the  way  from  Stretinsk, 
were  seen  groups  of  people  belonging  to  the  hardy  Siberian 
tribes.  The  people  of  these  cold  countries  look  healthy  and 
prosperous  :  they  have  character.  How  is  it  that  the  peasantry 
of  Northern  Europe,  Canada,  and  Siberia  present  such  a  noble 
appearance  as  compared  with  the  ragged  peons  of  the  palm 
lands  of  the  tropics  ?  They  live  on  the  crops  of  the  short 
seasons,  hard  wheat,  buckwheat ;  by  the  small  profits  of  millet, 
flax,  and  furs ;  and  yet  they  dress  comfortably,  are  robust,  live 
long,  and  are  prosperous  and  happy.  It  is  the  inner  life  that 
makes  the  man,  and  these  people  have  virtue  and  an  uplifting 
religious  faith. 


240  TRAVELLER   TALES   OF  CHINA 

Let  us  look  at  some  of  these  Siberian  tribes,  and  especially 
at  the  women  and  children. 

At  the  landings  one  meets,  as  at  the  railway  stations,  sellers  of 
many  little  luxuries.  One  of  these  travelling  restaurants,  if  we 
may  so  call  the  class,  sells  fried  cakes  of  many  kinds,  containing 
fruits  or  meats.  These  victualers  make  the  roads  of  the  country 
cheerful  by  their  wanderings,  and  are  welcome  objects  by  the  way. 

There  are  to  be  seen  the  golden  domes  of  Russian  churches 
in  many  of  the  towns ;  churches  with  jewelled  lamps  and 
shrines,  and  with  music  as  enchanting  as  an  imagined  hymn  of 
the  angels.  On  the  Chinese  side  of  the  river,  or  the  side  where 
Russia  makes  a  concession  of  Chinese  settlements,  an  occasional 
temple  is  seen,  and  among  them,  at  Ssen-Thia-Ts'oune,  the 
decaying  temple  of  the  God  of  War,  it  being  an  ancient  military 
place. 

One  of  the  sights  upon  the  river  which  most  delighted  Lucy 
was  the  little  rugged  dogs  that  came  towing  boats  up  tributary 
streams. 

Can  one  row  a  boat  against  a  current  with  one  oar,  and  that 
without  lifting  the  oar? 

Yes,  one  may  do  almost  anything  if  one  know  how.  One 
may  travel  on  the  water  without  sail,  oars,  or  rudder,  if  one 
will  let  the  current  bear  him ;  if  he  trust  the  current  in  the 
way  he  is  going. 

But  the  Manchurian  boatman  travels  against  the  current, 
holding  one  oar  or  paddle  in  his  hand.  He  attaches  two  stout 
dogs  by  a  long  cord  to  his  little  craft,  and  they  dig  their  feet 
into  the  shore,  and  tug  and  strain  and  bear  him  along  against 
the  current,  while  he  sits  in  his  boat,  seeming  to  be  scowing 
backward.  The  current  rolls  swift  and  heavy  against  him,  he 
uses  his  paddle  as  a  rudder,  the  boat  breasts  the  tide,  and 
the  little  dogs  dig  on,  at  times  straining  every  muscle,  and 
yet  seeming  to  be  happy  to  do  the  work. 


THE  MAGICIAN   IN  FIREWORK  243 

Our  tourists  had  now  passed  Siberia,  and  yet  had  not  seen  the 
Siberia  of  their  imaginations. 

Siberia !  One  sees  in  the  word  a  picture  of  tyranny,  injustice, 
and  misery.  One  hears  the  winds  blow  cold  at  the  sound  of 
that  word,  and  conjures  up  prison-houses  in  mines,  chained  con- 
vict miners,  and  dismal  processions  of  wretches  travelling  far- 
ther and  farther  into  the  snow.  It  was  so,  but  thanks  to  the 
much  good  that  there  is  in  the  heart  of  the  czar,  the  Siberia  of 
old,  like  serfdom,  has  been  practically  abolished. 

Siberia  is  one  and  a  half  times  larger  than  Europe,  and  is 
5,600  miles  long  from  northeast  to  southwest.  It  in  part  con- 
sists of  swamps,  moorlands  and  flats,  vast  forests,  hard  hills, 
mines,  and  great  regions  of  snow-baffling  evergreens.  To  the 
north,  it  is  frozen  more  than  half  the  year,  and  some  steppes 
have,  on  the  average,  but  few  huts  to  the  square  mile. 

The  great  districts  of  Tomsk  and  the  Amoor  River  are  very 
fertile.  Here  are  the  granaries  of  Northern  Europe.  The  Trans- 
Siberian  Railroad  will  make  them  more  prosperous  than  before ; 
cities  will  enlarge,  and  the  great  river  systems  be  clouded  with 
steam. 

Over  Mongolia,  rise  the  Altai  Mountains,  and  the  great  Lake 
Baikal  covers,  with  its  sunny  expanse,  a  large  portion  of  Eastern 
Siberia. 

Here  are  the  wolfish  sledge-dogs,  the  reindeer,  the  Arctic  fox, 
and  white  bear,  the  sable,  wolf,  marten,  and  wild  sheep.  In 
the  regions  of  almost  endless  winter,  the  dogs  answer  for  horses, 
and  make  merry  the  sledges. 

On  the  Amoor  the  Tunguses  are  of  Tartar  origin,  as  are  the 
Manchus  of  the  Amoor  territories,  whence  the  reigning  family 
of  China  is  descended. 

In  1845,  the  left  bank  of  the  Amoor  became  Russian,  and 
near  the  mouth  of  the  river  the  Russians  have  founded  a  town 
named  Nicholajevsk. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

THE  DEATH  LAMASARY,  OR  THE  HUMAN  GOD  AND 
THE  "PRAYER -FLAGS" 

AH  HUE  was  as  entertaining  on  the  Amoor  as  on  the  palace 
train. 

It  was  a  strange  tale  that  Ah  Hue  next  told,  —  strange,  yet 
no  detail  of  it  exceeds  the  truth  of  frequent  occurrences  in 
Ourga,  the  China  city  of  the  Lama,  the  Mecca  of  Kootoota,  the 
boy-god. 

"  I  was  travelling  with  a  caravan  that  was  transporting  tea 
into  Russia,  by  the  usual  way  of  Ourga,  Irkoutsk,  and  Tomsk. 
A  speck  of  gold  shone  upon  the  horizon.  The  horsemen  turned 
and  exclaimed,  '  Ourga.'  The  speck  was  the  burning  gold  of  a 
pinnacle.  The  horsemen  dashed  on,  and  I  followed  them.  The 
palaces  of  the  Holy  City  arose  in  view.  Here  was  the  supposed 
abode  of  a  living  god.  Around  it  were  spread  white  tents.  Here 
came  people  from  deserts,  from  towns,  from  far  Manchuria,  to 
look  upon  the  features  of  the  young  Lama,  the  boy-god,  which 
is  deemed  to.  be  the  greatest  event  that  glorifies  human  life. 
They  are  pilgrims  of  the  soul ;  to  see  the  face  of  the  Mongolian 
god,  and  to  die  in  the  chambers  of  the  Lamasary  is  in  their  view 
to  be  wafted  away  to  the  regions  of  eternal  light  and  bliss. 

"  Pilgrims  come  from  Manchuria,  nine  hundred  miles  away, 
and  cross  deserts  afoot  and  alone  for  hundreds  of  miles,  to  see 
the  face  divine,  praying  all  the  way. 

"  There  are  two  living  deities  of  Mongol  Buddhism,  —  the 
Lama  of  Tibet  and  the  Lama  of  Ourga ;  so  Ourga,  the  Mongolian 
capital,  is  the  second  sacred  city  in  the  world. 


THE  DEATH  LAMAS  ARY  245 

"  The  Lama  lives  in  the  privacy  of  his  palaces,  and  only  on 
rare  occasions  is  his  face  to  be  seen  by  the  faithful.  He  is  wor- 
shipped as  a  god,  —  the  Grand  Lama  of  Mongolia,  like  the  Grand 
Lama  of  Tibet. 

"  Ancient  Buddhism  knows  no  worship  of  God,  but  only  the 
adoration  of  the  saints,  so  Mongolian  Lamaism  is  saint  worship. 

"  The  trinity  of  doctrine  in  Lamarism  is,  (1)  I  take  my 
refuge  in  Buddha.  (2)  I  take  my  refuge  in  law.  (3)  I  take 
my  refuge  among  the  saints.  Ourga  is  the  city  of  the  saints. 

"  The  Lamas  are  believed  to  be  reincarnations  of  Buddha,  or 
the  Buddha  principles.  The  Lama  Bible  consists  of  one  hundred 
books,  the  study  of  which  is  confined  to  the  sacred  places. 

"  The  temples  rose  before  us  like  great  shadows  in  the  red 
sunset.  The  prayer-flags  waved  in  the  air,  and  sickening  odors 
were  perceptible  as  the  light  faded ;  they  came  from  the  city  of 
the  dead,  where  bodies  are  continually  exposed  to  the  flocks  of 
birds  in  the  air. 

"  We  came  to  the  gate  of  the  Russian  consulate.  Beggars 
swarmed  about  us.  We  rang  the  bell.  A  Cossack  appeared, 
and  we  received  a  hospitable  welcome  from  the  consul. 

"  I  went  out  into  the  dusky  streets  before  the  light  faded, 
where  I  met  a  hungry  pilgrim,  a  man  past  middle  age,  and 
the  most  remarkable-looking  human  being  that  I  ever  saw. 

"  He  asked  for  food. 

"  '  I  have  travelled  a  thousand  miles,'  he  said,  '  praying  in  all 
the  deserts.  I  want  food  to  strengthen  me  before  I  fall  down 
before  the  great  image.' 

"  '  Why  have  you  come  ?  '  I  asked. 

"  He  answered  only,  '  My  soul.' 

"  His  famished  face  had  a  radiance  in  it,  —  a  soul  light,  — 
like  a  lamp  in  a  vase  of  alabaster. 

"  I  gave  him  money  ;  I  could  not  give  him  food.  The  air  was 
full  of  bells,  and  I  returned  to  the  consulate. 


246  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

"As  the  city  cooled,  the  odor  in  the  air  became  dreadful. 

" '  It  comes,'  said  the  consul,  '  from  the  city  of  the  dead ; 
there  have  been  many  pilgrims  here  of  late ;  they  come  to  die, 
and  they  perish  in  the  sacred  chambers,  after  they  have  pros- 
trated themselves  before  the  great  image  of  Buddha.' 

"  Ourga  contains  the  colossal  image  of  the  world.  It  stands 
in  a  dim  temple,  and  rises  like  a  mountain  over  the  shadows  of 
the  place  of  adoration.  Its  hands  are  the  size  of  a  man's  body, 
or  larger,  and  its  face  is  most  beautiful  and  serene. 

"  In  the  morning  the  air  seemed  purer.  I  went  to  visit  the 
temple  of  the  Great  Buddha. 

"  The  image  of  the  god  filled  me  with  wonder.  How  was  it 
made  ?  What  human  art  fashioned  it  ? 

"The  huge  temple  had  no  windows.  It  was  a  cavern  of 
shadows. 

"A  few  oil-lamps  made  the  colossus  visible.  It  was  hung 
about  with  prayer-flags  of  crimson  and  gold.  The  dark  walls 
were  full  of  gilt  or  golden  idols,  protected  by  glass. 

"  At  the  foot  of  the  great  idol  was  the  throne  of  the  boy-god. 

"  Priests  came  in  to  relight  the  lamps.  As  the  light  bright- 
ened, we  looked  up,  and  high  in  air  shone  his  Serenity,  but  the 
face  of  the  Beautiful  was  in  shadow. 

**  Ourga  is  a  city  of  silence,  save  when  the  bells  ring,  and  the 
gongs  sound,  and  the  trumpets  peal  for  service. 

"  The  bells  were  ringing,  as  I  passed  out  into  the  morning 
street. 

"  I  met  the  pilgrim  there  whom  I  had  seen  in  the  twilight. 

"  He  rushed  past  me,  an  excited  glow  on  his  face.  He  was 
going  into  the  temple  to  prostrate  himself  before  the  colossal 
image. 

"  Birds  were  wheeling  in  the  air.  They  formed  a  cloud  over 
a  spot  a  little  distance  from  the  temple.  Now  and  then  some 
of  them  seemed  to  drop  down  from  the  sky. 


THE  DEATH  LAMASARY  247 

"  I  resolved  to  go  to  the  Place  of  the  Dead,  —  the  Golgotha. 
It  was  just  outside  of  the  city.  So  I  took  a  view  of  the  Lama's 
palace,  where  flutter  prayer-flags,  and  lit  a  cigar  for  safety 
against  the  pestilential  vapors,  and  went  to  the  hillside,  where 
the  dead  were  carried  to  become  the  food  of  the  dogs  and  the 
vultures. 

"  The  sight  was  the  most  horrible  that  can  fill  the  imagina- 
tion. It  was  a  place  of  human  bones  and  of  decaying  corpses. 
The  pilgrims  who  fall  sick  here  are  taken  to  the  Death  Lamasary, 
and  are  not  doctored,  but  prepared  for  death.  As  soon  as  they 
die,  their  bodies  are  taken  to  this  open  field,  and  left  to  the 
beasts  and  the  birds. 

"  The  field  of  the  dead  haunted  me.  I  went  to  the  palace  of 
the  Lama  the  next  morning,  and  returned  to  the  field.  Another 
morning  I  went  to  it  again,  when  I  beheld  a  sight  that  still 
haunts  my  soul. 

"  The  poor  pilgrim,  whom  I  had  twice  met,  had  died  in  the 
silent  chambers,  and  had  been  robed  in  a  blue  frock  and  taken 
to  the  field.  The  birds  were  gathering  about  him,  and  one  of 
them  had  already  broken  his  face.  He  was  bleeding.  He  was 
not  dead. 

"  The  birds  were  alighting  above  the  field  on  other  partly 
eaten  bodies.  The  air  seemed  putrid.  My  first  impulse  was  to 
hasten  away,  but  no,  I  had  helped  this  poor  pilgrim  of  the 
deserts  who  had  made  a  long  and  perilous  journey  for  the  sake 
of  his  soul,  and  I  must  do  so  again.  The  fact  that  he  had  made 
the  journey  for  his  soul's  sake,  showed  me  that  he  had  moral 
worth,  —  that  there  was  something  noble,  almost  divine,  in  him. 

"  I  would  keep  the  birds  away  from  his  body  until  help 
arrived. 

"  I  am  not  a  smoker,  but  I  again  lighted  a  cigar  and  breathed 
the  fumes  to  avoid  the  odor  of  the  decaying  bodies. 

"  Help  came  at  last.     A  procession  of  priests  were  bringing 


248  TRAVELLER   TALES  OF  CHINA 

another  body  to  the  field.  I  could  see  them  coming  from  the 
mid-desert  city  of  hovels  an<J  palaces,  with  prayer-flags  waving 
in  the  air. 

"  The  body  of  the  pilgrim  at  last  moved  —  it  turned. 

"  I  called  to  it : 

" «  Pilgrim  ! ' 

"  Again : 

" '  Friend  !     Pilgrim  of  the  desert ! ' 

"  He  opened  his  eyes. 

"  '  You  —  '  he  said, '  this  same  world.  I  heard  your  voice  —  I 
hoped  that  this  world  was  the  other.  Now  I  must  arise,  and  go 
on  my  journey  again.  I  am  still  a  pilgrim  here,  —  but  I  have 
prayed  to  Buddha,  and  my  morning  will  come.' 

"  He  arose  and  followed  me  into  the  city. 

"  There  was  a  great  sound  of  whirring  wheels  as  we  entered 
the  city,  for  it  was  a  saint's  day.  The  wheels  were  prayers. 
The  Mongolians  had  set  in  motion  the  wheels  that  contained 
the  printed  prayers  that  they  would  have  answered.  Every  one 
has  prayer-wheels  there,  and  many  carry  them  about  with  them. 

"  The  Lama  was  in  the  palace,  and  not  at  his  summer-house 
in  the  hills,  where  he  lives  much  of  the  year.  He  was  going  to 
the  temple  that  day  to  sit  on  the  throne  at  the  feet  of  Buddha, 
but  he  was  on  his  way  through  a  secret  passage.  I  tried  to 
enter  the  temple,  but  in  vain. 

"And  here  was  a  common  man  just  like  all  other  men,  of 
whom  superstition  had  made  a  god.  Bells  rang,  gongs  sounded, 
prayer-wheels  whirled,  prayer-banners  waved  in  the  tainted  air. 
Men  fell  prostrate  in  the  dark  temple  before  the  Lama ;  it  was 
all  a  delusion,  and  yet  — 

"  It  was  not  a  delusion  that  the  poor  pilgrim  of  the  desert 
had  been  willing  to  surrender  every  worldly  comfort,  to  thirst, 
hunger  in  the  deserts,  to  leave  friends,  and  all  pursuits  of  gold 
and  a  name,  to  suffer  every  imaginable  pain  for  the  sake  of  the 


THE  DEATH  LAMAS  ABY  249 

purification  of  his  soul.  His  moral  life  rose  over  every  other 
consideration :  to  become  a  worthy  ancestor  was  his  highest 
ambition,  and  to  gain  what  was  noble,  pure,  and  true  was  the 
hope  of  his  soul.  He  was  ignorant,  but  a  Washington,  a  Lincoln, 
a  Gladstone,  a  San  Martin,  or  the  Admirable  Crichton  may 
have  had  no  higher  thought  or  more  sincere  worth.  From  his 
point  of  view  he  did  his  utmost  to  be  worthy  of  immortality." 


CHAPTER    XIX. 
THE  NEW  PARTS   OF   THE   WOKLD 

LOOK  again  on  the  map  at  the  beginning  of  this  volume,  a 
map  that  will  remind  you  of  the  East  Atlantic  coast,  with  the 
Amoor  for  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Corea  for  Florida. 

You  will  see  there : 

Alexandrevsk, 

Vladivostok, 

Yuene-Sane. 

Look  again  on  old  maps :  you  will  not  find  them. 

These  ports  are  on  the  way  to  Pekin,  around  ancient  Corea. 

Yet  in  the  daily  papers  you  will  see  these  names  frequently. 
Out  of  the  world,  a  new  world  seems  to  be  rising  there. 

Our  tourists  resolved  to  go  to  Pekin  by  way  of  these  new 
ports.  Thence  they  would  go  to  Tonquin,  and  return  to  Hong- 
kong. 

Mr.  Barnard  wished  to  return  to  America  from  Hong  Kong, 
by  the  way  of  some  Pacific  port  and  Panama,  so  as  to  complete 
what  would  be  some  day,  either  by  way  of  the  Nicaragua  or 
Panama  Canal,  the  new  way  around  the  world.  He  also  desired 
to  visit  the  Atlantic  coast  of  South  America,  and  to  see  the 
rapidly  building  South  American  railroad  from  Guiaquil  to 
Quito,  over  the  foot-hills  of  Chimborazo,  where  Church  painted 
the  "  Heart  of  the  Andes."  The  beginning  of  travel  in  new 
ways,  to  see  new  things,  opened  as  it  were  a  new  world  to  him. 

Would  you  learn  how  the  party  travelled  on  the  lordly  Amour, 
or  Amoor,  and  have  a  clear  view  of  the  manner  of  travel  ?  Yes, 

250 


THE  NEW  PARTS    OF  THE    WORLD  253 

—  well,  pictures  can  do  for  you  what  the  pen  cannot  do 
as  well. 

Founded  in  1850,  Nicholaievesk  is  situated  on  the  Amoor. 
There  may  be  seen  the  Ghiliak  fishermen,  whose  boats  in  full 
sail  look  like  huge  butterflies. 

The  Ghiliaks  are  a  rude,  simple  race.  The  bear  is  their  god. 
They  raise  young  bears  in  all  their  villages.  On  their  fete-days 
they  take  one  of  these  bears  in  a  cage  and  carry  it  from  door  to 
door,  as  a  god  about  to  be  sacrificed,  and  to  be  sent  as  a 
messenger  to  their  departed  friends  in  the  unseen  world. 

The  people  pray  to  the  bear-god.  They  tell  him  what  they 
would  have  him  say  to  their  departed  friends  after  he  is  sacri- 
ficed. They  give  him  messages  to  bear  to  the  dead. 

After  the  procession  is  over  they  fall  upon  him  and  kill  him. 
Then  they  eat  the  sacrifice,  and  adore  the  remains.  A  Chinese 
or  Japanese  print  curiously  illustrates  this  story  of  the  rude 
fishermen  of  the  Amoor.  We  reproduce  it  on  a  subsequent  page. 


CHAPTER   XX. 
THE   COREA   GINSEXG 

COREA,  or  "  the  Corea,"  is  the  peninsula  of  mystery,  but  is  also 
the  land  of  missions.  She  has  been  inhospitable  to  travellers, 
and  has  forbidden  the  schemes  of  explorers.  Catholic  mission- 
aries have  found  their  way  into  the  country,  and  remained  there, 
but  such  have  written  little  about  it  for  the  public  eye.  We  owe 
to  a  single  book  by  Pere  Ch.  Dallet,  "  The  History  of  the  English 
in  Corea,"  the  popular  view  of  the  hermit  nation. 

The  word  Corea  seems  to  mean  the  calm,  or  "  the  morning 
calm,"  and  is  pronounced  Co-rl  by  the  natives. 

It  is  a  land  of  mountains.  Peaks  lean  everywhere  over  the 
"  morning  calm "  of  the  sea  and  land.  It  is  also  a  land  of 
forests  and  streams,  and  its  climate  has  the  strenuous  chill 
of  Northern  China. 

There  rice  and  wheat  grow  together,  and  flowers  of  beautiful 
hues  abound,  most  of  which  are  scentless.  Tobacco  and  cotton 
were  introduced  there  from  Japan,  and  all  the  fruits  of  northern 
climates  grow  freely. 

It  is  a  land  of  ginseng  (panox),  the  herb  or  root  of  Oriental 
superstition,  which  is  supposed  to  have  magic  power  over  all 
diseases,  and  to  possess  the  gift  of  immortal  life. 

This  gift  must  be  effective  in  some  unseen  way,  and  that  after 
death,  if  the  claim  were  true,  for  no  one  who  has  used  it,  how- 
ever freely,  has  continued  to  live  beyond  the  allotted  age. 

The  root  of  ginseng  takes  the  form  of  the  human  body,  like 
the  wooden  image  of  a  man.  This  form  is  supposed  to  have 

254 


THE  CORE  A   GINSENG  255 

suggested  its  magical  properties.  It  grows  in  Manchuria,  and 
when  the  product  became  exhausted  in  China,  the  northern 
countries  and  even  American  forests  were  searched  for  it,  as  we 
have  illustrated,  and  it  was  literally  worth  its  weight  in  gold. 
A  delicate  root  has  been  known  to  bring  XI 7,  or  nearly  ninety 
dollars,  in  the  Chinese  market. 

This  root,  as  we  have  already  shown,  opened  the  gates  of 
Canton  to  New  England  ships. 

We  should  know  more  about  this  product  which  has  had  such 
an  important  influence  in  historic  events. 

"  The  ginseng,"  says  a  Manchurian  commissioner  of  customs, 
"  loves  moisture  and  the  densest  of  forests  which  cling  to  the 
slopes  of  the  hills.  It  nestles  in  recesses  which  the  rays  of 
the  sun  have  never  penetrated,  and  which  are  as  pathless  now  as 
in  the  days  of  the  Golden  Tartars. 

"  The  Manchurian  ginseng  consists  of  a  stem,  from  which  the 
leaves  spring,  of  a  centre  root  (trunk),  and  of  two  roots  branch- 
ing off  from  the  centre  root  (arms).  The  stem  resembles  the 
head  and  neck  of  a  man,  and  the  side  roots,  arms ;  the  main 
root  represents  the  body,  and  a  fork,  which  the  main  root  fre- 
quently forms,  legs. 

"The  value  of  the  root  is  increased  by  its  age,  and  the  age 
is  determined  by  rings. 

"  The  collection  of  ginseng  used  to  be  in  the  hands  of  some 
forty  merchants,  who  obtained  concessions  from  the  Tartars  to 
gather  it.  The  merchants  employed  outlaws  to  gather  the  herb, 
which  became  scarce." 

Corea  is  a  land  of  tigers,  —  the  cat-tiger,  small,  but  cunning 
and  destructive.  This  animal  pursued  the  ginseng  collectors  in 
former  times. 

The  climate  is  hot  in  summer. 

The  Coreans  came  from  the  Mongol  race.  They  are  short, 
compact,  strong,  and  apathetic,  and  are  brave  when  roused  to 


256  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

war.  For  two  thousand  years  the  Coreans  have  been  conspicu- 
ous in  the  Chinese  armies. 

The  Corean  women  are  slaves  in  their  own  houses.  In  girl- 
hood, their  husbands'  are  selected  for  them,  without  any  choice 
of  their  own.  The  husband  and  wife  do  not  see  each  other's 
faces  before  the  veil  of  the  bride  is  lifted.  The  bride  does  not 
talk  to  her  husband  until  after  marriage.  The  Corean  mothers 
are  very  fond  of  their  children,  and  find  the  chief  delight  of 
their  life  in  the  nursery.  They  adopt  the  children  of  others, 
even  when  they  have  many  of  their  own.  They  are  natural 
kindergartners,  and  a  charm  indeed  is  the  home  garden  in  the 
peninsular  kingdom. 

The  Coreans  worship  their  ancestors  in  robes  of  white.  Con- 
fucianism is  the  state  religion,  influenced  by  Buddhism. 

It  is  a  land  of  tiled  roofs,  small  but  picturesque  brick  houses, 
and  earthen  floors. 

The  officials  dress  in  white  silk.  Many  people  wear  horse- 
hair hats.  All  wear  long  hair. 

Trade  as  a  rule  is  conducted  by  barter.  There  is  no  consid- 
erable coinage.  The  Coreans  are  a  home  people  in  all  their 
desires  and  habits.' 


CHAPTER   XXI. 
THE   HOUSE   SPIRITS    OF   COREA 

THE  real  religion  of  Corea  is  Spiritualism.  We  do  not  mean 
any  modern  form  of  Spiritualism,  but  the  simple  belief  that 
good  people  draw  around  them  good  spirits,  and  evil  people  evil 
ones,  and  that  many,  or  most,  of  the  acts  of  life  are  influenced 
by  good  or  evil  spirits,  and  suggestions  secretly  made  to  the 
soul  by  spirits. 

The  Buddhism  of  Corea  has  yielded  to  this  universal  belief. 
The  Coreans  believe  that  a  universe  of  invisible  spirits  sur- 
rounds them.  These  are  called  daemons,  but  the  word  does  not 
imply  demons,  but  good  spirits  as  well  as  bad. 

You  will  not  wonder  that  Ah  Hue  listened  to  the  story  of  the 
"  House  on  Rumney  Marsh  "  with  intense  interest.  We  cannot 
say  whether  or  not  there  is  any  truth  in  Doctor  Wintlehouse's 
theory  that  places  are  affected  by  the  kind  of  people  that  inhabit 
them,  but  such  is  the  universal  belief  in  Corea.  A  house  of 
bad  associations  there  would  be  torn  down. 

The  belief  of  a  world  peopled  by  spirits  who  can  produce  sick- 
ness and  suggest  evil  has  caused  a  strange  kind  of  doctors  to 
flourish  in  the  hermit  land,  who  are  called  Exorcists.  These 
doctors  claim  to  have  inner  sight,  to  be  able  to  control  good 
spirits  and  bad,  and  to  compel  them  to  depart  from  those  whom 
they  are  tormenting.  A  book  of  Isabella  Bird  Bishop  contains 
chapters  devoted  to  this  strange  superstition,  and  the  doctors  to 
which  it  has  given  rise.  The  belief  in  such  spiritual  influences 
and  their  control  is  known  as  Shamanism. 


257 


258  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

Shamanism  is  reputed  to  be  more  than  four  thousand  years 
old;  it  is  studied  as  a  science,  and  it  has  its  guilds  and  govern- 
ment directions. 

It  is  considered  a  good  fortune  to  be  born  blind  in  Corea.  The 
blind  child  is  supposed  to  possess  clear  spiritual  sight,  and  to  be 
able  to  baffle  the  wiles  of  evil  spirits. 

These  occult  doctors  are  called  Pan-Sa.  There  is  a  Pan-Sa 
guild  in  Sione  that  is  maintained  by  the  government. 

The  Shamans  select  dwelling-places,  houses,  places  for 
graves.  They  heal  the  sick,  whose  sickness  is  supposed  to 
be  caused  by  evil  spirits,  propitiate  revengeful  spirits,  and 
avert  the  influence  of  spirits  that  cause  crimes,  suicides,  and 
abnormal  acts.  The  fees  for  this  service  are  high.  It  is  said 
that  Corea  spends  some  two  millions  and  a  half  dollars  annually 
for  this  relief,  which  is  simply  an  influence  on  the  perverted 
imagination. 

In  all  cases  of  insanity  and  nervous  disease,  the  Pan-Sa  doc- 
tor is  called.  The  latter  brings  with  him  a  rod,  and  this  rod 
shakes  in  answer  to  his  questions  in  regard  to  the  case.  A  good 
spirit  is  summoned  to  drive  out  the  evil  one,  who  is  believed  to 
be  possessing  the  patient.  The  struggle  is  often  thought  to  be 
long  and  severe.  In  some  cases,  the  evil  spirit  is  compelled 
to  .enter  a  bottle,  and  is  bottled  up  and  cast  away.  Woe  be  to 
him  who  sets  him  free  again. 

The  missionaries  in  Sione  have  done  something  toward  break- 
ing the  force  of  the  great  superstition.  They  are  preparing  the 
way  for  science,  and  a  more  enlightened  conception  of  things 
that  arise  from  natural  causes. 

Shamanism  prevails  on  the  Amoor  and  in  Manchuria,  as  well 
as  in  the  peninsula  of  Corea  and  its  fantastic  capital. 

We  look  upon  the  victims  of  such  superstitions  with  pity,  but 
how  do  they  regard  us  ? 

Let  us  quote  from  one  of  their  school  text-books : 


THE  HOUSE  SPIRITS   OF  CORE  A  261 

"  How  grand  and  glorious  is  the  Empire  of  China.  The 
grandest  men  in  the  world  have  all  come  from  her. 

"  Europe  is  too  far  away  from  the  centre  of  things.  Hence 
her  people  appear  like  beasts  and  birds,  and  her  languages  are 
like  the  chippe rings  of  the  fowls  of  the  air," 

The  cities  and  towns  of  both  Corea  and  China  present  two 
street  or  court  scenes  that  awaken  the  curiosity  of  the  visitor. 
One  is  the  doctor,  with  magic  remedies  like  ginseng,  who  draws 
around  him  a  credulous  crowd  ;  and  the  other  the  magician,  who 
consults  the  "  sticks  of  fate."  The  latter  sticks,  like  the  tipping 
table,  answer  his  questions  by  occult  signs,  which  he  is  supposed 
to  understand. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

THE  CAPITAL   OF  THE  CELESTIAL  EMPIRE  — 
MYSTERIES 

NANKIN,  the  ancient  capital  of  China,  declined  under  political 
changes,  and  Pekiii,  the  North  City,  became  the  capital  in  1421. 
Then  arose  Tien-tsin,  the  port  of  Pekin. 

Pekin  is  a  city  of  fantastic  fancies,  upbuilt  by  superstition, 
and  the  queerest  place  in  all  the  world.  The  Sacred  City  is 
here,  into  which  it  is  death  to  enter. 

The  outer  walls  are  some  sixty  feet  high  and  nearly  as  thick ; 
piles  of  vegetation  to  the  eye,  but  crumbling  and  decaying. 
They  enclose  a  million  or  more  inhabitants,  and  there  dwell  the 
embassies  of  various  nations,  and  there  are  English,  American, 
and  Continental  missions. 

Our  travellers  came  to  the  Holy  City  at  sunset.  There  was 
heard  a  great  sounding  of  gongs  at  the  guard-houses,  and  un- 
earthly cries  rent  the  air  when  one  of  the  nine  gates  of  the  city, 
that  they  were  about  to  enter,  closed. 

Mr.  Barnard  protested  against  being  kept  outside  of  the  walls 
during  the  night. 

"  Did  you  not  hear  the  gongs  ?  n  said  the  guard. 

Night  came  on,  and  the  city  grew  luminous.  The  stars  came 
out,  and  there  was  silence  at  last,  and  under  the  moon  the  great 
shadow  of  a  wall. 

They  entered  the  city  in  the  morning  after  sunrise.  It  looked 
to  them  like  a  great  fair ;  there  were  crimson  and  gold  every- 
where, dust,  dirt,  fantastic  balconies,  and  waving  banners. 

262 


THE  CAPITAL   OF  THE  CELESTIAL   EMPIRE  263 

Mr.  Barnard  wished  to  hold  his  nose,  for  the  air  was  full  of 
bad  smells,  and  there  were  also  sights  and  scenes  to  which  he 
would  gladly  have  closed  his  eyes. 

Clouds  of  dust  arose.    Mr.  Barnard  complained  of  it  to  Ah  Hue. 

"  It  is  a  disinfectant,"  said  Ah  Hue ;  "  it  makes  the  people 
healthy." 

They  were  taken  to  a  hotel  where  were  English-speaking 
servants.  They  then  went  to  the  old  place  of  English  embassy. 
The  buildings  were  like  a  palace  on  the  Imperial  Canal.  In- 
deed, it  was  once  a  palace.  The  entrance  was  gorgeous  in  the 
extreme,  —  airy  pavilions,  carved  roofs  and  cornices,  pillars  of 
crimson  and  gold.  The  rooms  within  had  an  atmosphere  of 
a  world  of  fables,  —  dimly  lighted  apartments  of  Oriental 
luxuries,  inscriptions,  vases,  odors  of  flowers.  They  afterward 
went  to  the  American  legation. 

They  found  all  the  streets  much  alike. 

"  What  is  to  be  seen  in  the  Forbidden  City  ?  "  asked  practical 
Charles  of  an  English-speaking  servant  at  the  hotel. 

"  The  brother  of  the  Sun  and  Moon." 

"  How  does  he  look  ? " 

"  Just  like  me,  if  I  had  a  mandarin's  dress  on." 

"Is  that  all?" 

"  All,  just  folks,  bobbing  about,  or  lying  around  in  silk  and 
gold." 

"  Why  is  it  closed  against  foreigners  ?  " 

"  So  that  they  may  not  know  that  there  is  nothing  there." 

There  is  nothing  in  a  mystery  in  these  flowery  lands,  and  yet 
there  the  very  air  is  mystery. 

Their  first  mystery  was  the  sight  of  a  Chinese  funeral.  They 
went  out  and  found  the  streets  full  of  people  —  "  was  there  ever 
such  a  crowd  ?  " 

Mandarins  in  palanquins,  or  sedan-chairs ;  soldiers  on  horse- 
back in  gay  colors,  looking  like  flying  men ;  Tartar  ladies  under 


264  TRAVELLER   TALES   OF  CHINA 

silk  canopies,  with  bells ;  camels,  and  men  from  the  desert ; 
water-carriers  and  sellers  of  fruit,  chow-chow,  and  ice,  all 
covered  with  dust. 

There  was  a  ringing  of  bells,  a  clashing  of  cymbals,  and  a 
great  noise  everywhere,  when  suddenly  over  all  there  came 
a  hush. 

A  funeral  procession  was  approaching,  that  of  a  mandarin, 
or  some  public  functionary.  It  was  led  by  mourners  in  white, 
or  in  white  robes  gray  with  dust.  The  catafalque,  or  hearse, 
approached,  surrounded  by  ghostly  forms  strewing  flowers  and 
burning  incense. 

The  procession  stopped.  Large  white  sheets  were  spread 
upon  the  ground,  mourners  fell  down  on  their  faces  on  them, 
and  beat  their  heads  on  the  ground. 

How  helpless  they  looked,  thus  beating  the  earth,  and  what  a 
parable  of  life  it  seemed  ! 

The  dead  mandarin's  horse  was  led  before  the  coffin,  and  a 
wax  image  of  the  mandarin  himself  was  borne  beside  it. 

The  coffin  was  of  immense  size. 

The  "  followers "  followed,  and  the  wax  image  seemed  to 
lead  them  to  the  place  of  burial.  There  were  many  prostrations 
along  the  way,  the  mourners  falling  down  on  the  white  cloths 
spread  for  them  upon  the  earth,  and  beating  their  heads  on  the 
ground. 

The  Chinese  do  not  bury  dead  bodies  in  the  earth ;  they  set 
down  the  coffin,  and  throw  a  covering  of  earth  over  it,  and 
so  it  remains  on  the  top  of  the  ground  to  become  a  mound  of 
flowers.  The  earth  is  renewed  if  it  fall  away.  The  dead  are 
blanketed  with  earth,  which  turns  into  flowers ;  the  burial-place, 
or  sleeping-place,  is  one  of  mounds,  not  graves.  The  sun,  the 
stars,  the  night,  and  all  seem  near  the  sleeper.  The  burial 
impresses  some  travellers  as  less  barbarous  than  in  civilized 
countries. 


THE    WONDER    OF  PEKIN  265 

There  is  nothing  in  the  Sacred  City,  as  has  of  late  been 
found ;  but  the  savage  old  empress,  the  young  emperor's  aunt, 
was  held  as  a  sacred  being  when  she  resided  there.  No  one 
might  look  upon  her,  whose  relatives  were  the  sun  and  moon 
and  all  the  hosts  of  the  sky.  She  was  suspected  of  the  gravest 
crimes  that  belong  to  mortal  weakness,  but  that  did  not  seem  to 
dim  her  celestial  splendor.  When  she  gave  a  reception  to  min- 
isters of  state,  —  the  "  foreign  barbarians,"  -  —  she  stood  behind 
a  screen.  Vulgar  eyes  might  not  behold  her  who  shone  with 
the  sun  and  moon. 

But  one  day  a  stupendous  event  happened ;  it  should,  accord- 
ing to  traditions,  have  clouded  the  earth.  She  became  greatly 
excited  in  talking  over  possibly  some  court  gossip  when  standing 
behind  the  sacred  screen. 

In  her  excitement,  she  forgot  that  she  was  the  sister  of  the 
planets,  and  in  bobbing  up  and  down  to  enforce  her  opinions, 
she  showed  the  top  of  her  head  above  the  screen. 

That  was  a  sight  that  this  world  had  never  witnessed  before. 
It  made  a  profound  impression  on  the  court  and  emperor.  But 
the  sun  and  moon,  unheeding,  passed  on  just  the  same. 


THE     WONDER    OF    PEKIN  -  -  THE     SONG    OF     TEA, 
THE   TARTAR    FAIR,   AND   WHISTLING   PIGEONS 

PEKIN,  the  Celestial  City,  the  abode  of  the  Son  of  Heaven, 
contains  in  its  lively  population  and  sleepy  palaces,  eight  hun- 
dred thousand  or  more  beggars.  It  has  a  king  of  beggars,  and 
many  of  these  beggars  are  thieves. 

A  queer  old  story  used  to  be  related  of  the  manner  of  housing 
these  beggars.  As  they  were  accustomed  to  steal  bed-clothing, 
a  great  covering,  one  could  not  call  it  a  coverlet,  was  prepared 
for  them,  an  immense  bedspread.  This  sea  of  cloth  was  pro- 


266  TRAVELLER   TALES   OF  CHINA 

vided  with  slits  for  the  noses  of  the  sleepers.  How  comfortable 
it  must  have  been !  But  then  rats,  the  scavenger  birds,  the 
bugs ;  a  beggar  in  those  days  must  have  regarded  his  nose  as  a 
very  precious  article ! 

Of  course  Pekin  has  an  old-clothes  market  full  of  inquisitive 
and  curious  people,  and  silk  markets  where  fabrics  shine  in  the 
purified  morning  air.  Here,  too,  are  pawn-shops  full  of  unac- 
countable things. 

There  are  two  Pekins,  the  Chinese  and  the  Tartar ;  we  might 
say  three  Pekins,  as  the  Purple  City  of  the  Son  of  Heaven  is  a 
city  by  itself;  or  four  Pekins,  as  a  Christian  city  is  growing 
up  within  the  ancient  walls,  a  city  of  schools  and  chapels,  and 
high  cult.  The  Methodist  Mission  has  schools  for  Western 
education,  an  institution  which  has  become  a  power  in  China. 
The  medical  Christian  missions  are  also  a  progressive  power. 
These  are  all  Western  windows  open  to  the  light. 

The  Tartar  City  is  remarkable  for  its  fairs.  What  a  crowd 
gathers  at  the  Tartar  fairs,  and  what  things  for  sale  do  they  find 
in  this  great  world  market ! 

There  may  be  found  porcelains  and  fans  and  banners  on  which 
are  printed,  or  wrought,  or  dyed,  or  engraved,  the  famous 
emperor-poet  Kienlung's  Praise  of  Tea : 


"  The  leaves  of  mei-hoa  are  lovely, 
Sweetly  scented  those  of  fo-choea, 
But  place  the  tripod  upon  the  fire, 
The  gentle  and  slow-burning  fire, 
A  tripod  of  ancient  form, 
A  tripod  of  ancient  colors, 
Then  fill  the  urn  with  water, 
With  water  of  melted  snows, 
Let  the  water  gently  seethe 
Until  it  whiten  a  fish, 
Until  it  would  redden  a  crab. 


THE    WONDER    OF  PEKIN  267 

Pour  the  water  into  a  cup, 

A  cup  of  the  earth  of  yae, 

Pour  it  upon  the  tender  leaves, 

The  tea-tree's  sacred  leaves, 

Let  it  rest  until  mists  arise, 

When  the  mists  shall  turn  to  clouds, 

When  the  clouds  shall  float  away, 

Then  sip  the  fragrant  tea. 

Sip  the  tea,  oh,  happy  moments, 

It  will  drive  away  disquietude, 

The  five  causes  of  unrest. 

Yon  may  joy  to  taste  its  flower, 

Ton  may  feel  its  hidden  power, 

But  in  song,  or  voice  of  music 

Wrhat  you  feel  and  find  your  joy 

You  never  can  express, 

No  chord  or  harp  or  lyre 

Can  voice  tranquilly  the  praise  of  tea  1  " 

The  best  of  the  popular  fairs  is  held  near  the  great  Confucian 
Temple.  Here  may  be  seen  the  beflowered  gentry  in  embroidered 
satins,  and  crowds  of  fakirs  as  well.  Here  is  a  kind  of  bird 
market.  The  bird  lovers  carry  their  birds  on  perches,  on  open 
hoops  or  rings,  and  on  poles. 

And  here  offered  for  sale  are  some  of  the  queerest  things  ever 
seen  in  any  market  —  fighting  crickets,  gamey  little  things,  to 
be  taken  away  in  cages. 

Here  comes  the  quack  doctor  with  his  ginseng,  his  magio 
herbs,  his  occult  and  wonder-working  pills.  He  has  dragon 
blood  in  precious  parcels.  Here  jujube  paste  may  be  found  in 
perfection. 

Here  may  be  found  the  pigeon  whistle,  which  belongs  to  fairy- 
land. It  has  been  hung  upon  the  bird,  and  as  the  bird  flies 
against  the  air,  it  sings  like  a  nightingale.  This  toy  surpasses 
all  the  other  toys  of  the  world  —  hang  one  on  a  raven,  and  how 
he  would  fly  singing  away,  to  his  own  great  astonishment,  and 


268  TRAVELLER   TALES  OF  CHINA 

the  surprise  of  all  the  other  singing  birds  of  the  air.  The  kites 
and  the  crakes,  as  multiform  as  they  are,  cannot  surpass  the 
pigeons  who  carry  with  them  these  reolean  harps  which  are 
useful  as  well  as  magic-working  —  they  are  carriers,  and  bear 
aerial  music  with  their  messages,  which  are  sometimes  matters 
of  business,  but  sometimes  those  of  the  heart. 

The  sky  of  Pekin  in  fair  time  is  full  of  wonders.  Kites  and 
musical  pigeons  by  day,  and  fire-dragons  and  firework  surprises 
by  night.  There  is  no  city  like  Pekin  in  all  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 
THE   DOWAGER  — A  QUEEN    "AN"   INDEED 

THE  Empress  Dowager  of  China  is,  in  a  worldly-wise  sense, 
the  shrewdest  woman  in  Europe,  or  the  one  "  man  in  China,"  as 
she  has  been  called.  Full  of  cunning,  craft,  and  vanity,  she 
over-rode  all  opposition  to  her  sovereignty ;  she  placed  herself 
on  the  Dragon  Throne,  and  although  China  has  a  legitimate 
empress,  Queen  Tsze  Hsi  An  holds  the  keys  of  the  royal  palaces. 
The  Sister  of  the  Sun  and  Moon  has  no  thought  of  stepping 
down  and  out  —  not  she.  When  the  guardianship  of  the  baby 
Emperor  Tunychik  was  left  to  a  board  of  regents,  an  imperial 
decree  raised  his  mother  to  the  position  of  empress,  and  the  two 
empresses  entered  Pekin  together,  the  royal  boy  resting  in  his 
own  mother's  arms.  The  two  empresses  reigned  together  during 
the  little  emperor's  minority. 

The  young  heir  was  married  in  great  splendor  in  1872,  at  the 
age  of  seventeen. 

The  young  emperor  died  mysteriously,  and  his  wife  Ahluta 
followed  him  to  the  royal  abode  of  their  ancestors  as  mysteri- 
ously, and  Kwangsa,  a  four-year-old  boy,  was  declared  emperor 
by  the  two  empresses,  especially  by  "An,"  the  superfluous 
dowager. 

She  claimed  that  she  was  not  only  his  aunt,  but  his  step- 
mother, although  the  emperor  had  died  long  before  this  adopted 
son  was  born.  That  did  not  matter  to  the  dowager.  She  found 
a  way  to  hold  the  Dragon  Throne. 

The  Queen  Anne  of  England  was  a  woman,  and,  like  Victoria, 

269 


270 


TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 


held  in  high  esteem,  but  all  the  religions  of  China  hold  women 
as  inferior. 

But  the  gods  did  not  matter, "  An  "  sat  on  the  Dragon  Throne 
the  imperial  despot,  despite  the  laws  of  the  celestial  kingdom 
above  or  below.  She  struck  off  the  heads  of  the  princes  who 
opposed  her ;  ignorant  of  affairs  of  state,  she  bowed  the  mighty 
empire  to  her  will,  and  compelled  armies  to  carry  out  her 
capricious  fancies. 

Her  Audacity  scattered  her  enemies  like  dust,  prince  and  priest. 


GHILIAK    FISHING  -  BOATS 


When  the  young  emperor  had  reached  the  age  of  sixteen,  her 
Audacity,  his  aunt  and  "  stepmother,"  set  herself  to  choose  for 
him  a  wife.  He  had  been  brought  up  in  slavery  to  the  etiquette 
of  the  Purple  City  and  the  Temple  of  Heaven.  He  seems  to 
have  fallen  in  love,  and  to  have  desired  to  choose  him  a  wife, 
but  what  were  his  choice  and  affections  ? 

And  this  is  how  the  imperial  "  An  "  chose  a  wife  for  him. 

She  summoned  the  beautiful  girls  of  the  noble  Manchuriau 
families  before  her. 

First  three  hundred  beauties. 


THE   DOWAGER  271 

She  reduced  these  candidates  to  thirty. 

Then  to  ten. 

She  studied  the  case  two  years. 

She  chose  Yehonola. 

Who  was  Yehonola  ? 

The  daughter  of  the  empress  regent's  own  brother. 

This  kept  things  in  the  family  as  of  old.  The  emperor  seems 
to  have  been  indifferent  to  his  bride,  thinking  all  the  while  of 
another,  but  he  was  marched  forward  to  the  altar  all  the  same, 
amid  great  splendor  of  lanterns,  and  strewing  of  flowers. 

The  rejected  manuscripts  were  sent  home  with  gifts  of  silk 
and  gold,  and  the  old  dowager  still  retained  her  power ! 

Some  one  has  said  that  "  Fate  in  China  is  under  government 
control." 

But  it  is  not.  Machiavelli  taught  the  Italian  court  how  to 
deceive  the  nations.  He  succeeded  for  a  time.  But  how  sunk 
Italy  ?  Spain  pursued  a  like  policy,  and  robbed  the  Incas  in  the 
name  of  the  Church.  But  how  fell  Spain  ?  There  is  no  resist- 
ing moral  gravitation. 

The  empress  dowager  prepared  to  celebrate  her  sixtieth 
birthday,  and  to  make  her  festival  the  most  splendid  in  all  the 
world.  But  something  happened  —  it  was  with  Japan.  She 
took  her  first  lesson  in  the  moral  law,  that  no  one  can  escape 
one's  gravitation. 

The  emperor  aspired  to  be  a  reformer.  She,  too,  now  pre- 
tended to  become  a  reformer.  She  would  ride  in  railways  and 
establish  schools  and  hold  drawing-rooms.  Against  her  the 
Tartar  blood  of  China  arose.  There  came  a  reaction  that  shook 
the  throne.  The  wily  woman  now  changed  her  views,  and  led 
the  reaction  against  the  nation. 

The  nobility  demanded  that  the  emperor  should  set  aside  the 
dowager.  But  she  set  him  aside,  "  the  two  hundred  and  fortieth 
Son  of  Heaven,"  as  a  recent  writer  has  said. 


272  TRAVELLER    TALES  OF  CHINA 

The  court  contained  one  wonderful  man  —  a  philosopher, 
Kang  Ya  Wei ;  of  him  we  have  a  story  to  tell.  He  was  a  pro- 
gressive, a  friend  of  the  young  emperor  who  sent  word  to  him, 
"  Flee  for  your  life."  He  came  to  America. 


THE   MAD   ELEPHANT  — IN   THE   YELLOW    CITY 

THE  Yellow  City  of  Pekin,  or  the  Holy  City  within  the 
Tartar  city,  has  a  circuit  of  some  nine  miles,  and  the  Chinese 
hold  it  to  be  the  most  sacred  place  on  earth.  It  is  called  the 
City  of  the  Son  of  Heaven,  the  Forbidden  City.  Here  live 
the  imperial  family,  and  here  no  trade  is  allowed.  Green 
gardens  of  pavilions  and  yellow-tiled  roofs  may  be  seen  from 
afar  glimmering  in  the  sun,  or  buried  in  shadows,  but  no  foreign 
foot  may  pollute  these  prayer  streets,  or  enter  the  halls  of 
vermilion  and  gold.  On  the  hills  of  the  sacred  city  are  red 
pavilions  and  towers,  built  by  Ming  emperors.  The  boy  emperor 
of  this  dynasty  hanged  himself  there  when  the  Manchu  general 
conquered  the  city  of  Pekin.  The  Manchu  invader,  on  ascending 
the  throne,  punished  the  acacia-tree  on  which  the  last  monarch 
was  hanged.  He  chained  up  the  tree,  and  how  the  tree  felt 
about  it  we  are  not  informed ;  that  was  a  subject  of  occult  life. 

Temples,  pagodas,  kiosks,  dagobas,  monasteries,  with  many 
bells,  fill  the  sacred  grounds.  Here  is  the  Imperial  Library, 
the  pride  of  China.  There  is  the  Palace  of  the  Earth's  Repose, 
where  the  lovely  dowager  "  An  "  passed  her  time  for  the  forty 
years  of  her  three  usurpations.  The  Temple  of  the  Silkworms 
is  here,  and  the  Pavilion  of  Purple  Light. 

Within  the  dragon-tiled  walls  of  this  city  all  is  seclusion.  Here 
lives  or  lived  the  heaven-created  emperor,  and  eight  thousand 
people  of  mystery  live  with  him.  Here  pass  the  lamas  in  the 
holy  shadows  of  the  Tranquil  Palace  of  Heaven. 


THE  MAD  ELEPHANT  — IN   THE   YELLOW  CITY       273 

And  here  is  published  the  Pekin  G-azette,  a  yellow  journal, 
indeed,  which  is  the  oldest  paper  in  the  world.  Think  what 
news  that  paper  has  published,  not  of  this  world  only,  but  of 
the  celestial  regions  and  mysteries  as  well ! 

The  great  news  of  the  City  of  Seclusion  used  to  be  the 
movement  of  the  emperor.  He  was  usually  but  a  stupid  man 
of  low,  animal  passions  and  supreme  selfishness,  but  when  he 
moved  all  was  sacred  silence. 

His  proposed  movements  were  announced  in  the  Pekin 
G-azette,  with  the  streets  through  which  he  would  pass.  Every 
door  and  window  at  the  hour  must  be  closed.  To  look  upon 
him  with  common  eyes  was  a  crime.  The  streets  were  strewn 
with  new  sand  for  the  feet  of  his  bearers.  Every  one  heard  in 
awe  the  coming  of  the  procession,  but  must  not  see  it  —  he  was 
the  Son  of  Heaven. 

There  was  an  old  elephant  in  the  imperial  stables  who  had 
become  impatient  at  all  of  these  solemn  and  stately  ceremonies 
about  nothing.  It  made  him  mad  to  be  harnessed  for  the  grand 
procession  of  silence.  The  tinsel  and  gold  wearied  him,  the 
banners  and  dragons,  and  all. 

He  was  an  "  occult "  elephant,  but  had  degenerated  with  age, 
and  he  set  up  his  will  to  make  it  lively  in  the  periods  of 
fuss  over  the  movements  of  the  Son  of  Heaven.  He  did  not 
seem  to  so  much  as  know  that  the  weak  boy  emperors  were 
the  Sons  of  Heaven.  He  was  a  bad  elephant  as  well  as  a 
mad  one.  He  was  probably  a  tribute  elephant  from  Cochin 
China. 

It  was  a  day  of  a  grand  procession  —  yellow  satin  gowns 
filled  the  sacred  streets.  The  doors  were  shut  —  the  windows. 
People  listened  behind  curtains  to  the  coming  of  the  priests  of 
Buddha,  and  the  passing  of  the  Son  of  Heaven. 

The  mad  elephant  was  harnessed  with  trappings  of  dignity 
and  splendor. 


274  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

His  driver  commanded  him  to  go  slow,  but  he  did  not  like  to 
go  slow.  He  wished  to  be  free.- 

"  Back,  slow,  slow,"  said  the  sacred  driver. 

But  the  elephant  drove  forward,  and  the  people  beheld  his 
irreverence  with  awe,  but  they  kept  their  own  places.  They 
would  be  protected  by  the  occult  powers  of  the  Son  of  Heaven. 

But  little  did  the  elephant  care  for  the  Son  of  Heaven.  A 
mule  and  a  vehicle  stood  in  his  way,  and  he  seized  the  former 
with  his  trunk  and  set  him  aside  in  a  doorway,  cart  and  all. 

The  people  stared  at  such  irreverence,  and  a  poor  woman  held 
up  her  hands  in  horror. 

The  mad  elephant  seized  her  and  lifted  her  up  in  the  air,  and 
this  on  the  sacred  day,  and  the  Son  of  Heaven,  who  would  cause 
the  earth  to  tremble,  going  to  the  Palace  of  Heaven  borne  by 
sacred  feet  under  golden  pavilions. 

What  would  the  mad  elephant  do  with  the  woman  thus  lifted 
in  air  ? 

He  tossed  her  over  a  building  into  a  yard. 

The  procession  moved  rapidly  then,  and  when  the  elephant 
was  taken  to  his  stables  he  was  deemed  a  fit  subject  for  some 
new  incarnation,  for  which  he  must  bide  his  time. 

The  poor  woman  whom  he  had  tossed  over  the  tiled  roofs 
into  the  sacred  garden  must  have  been  slow  to  have  entered  the 
procession  with  a  sacred  elephant  again.  It  was  a  case  of 
lese-majesty. 

The  trade  city  of  Pekin  is  a  gay  bazaar,  —  gorgeous  with 
streamers,  ornamental  balconies,  and  displays  of  goods.  They 
are  like  a  vast  fair.  They  throng.  The  air  flutters  with 
banners  like  wings. 

Horses,  mules,  sedan-chairs,  wheelbarrows  with  sails,  people 
with  advertisements  of  their  trade  or  calling  on  their  garments, 
barbers  who  shave  at  the  corners  or  in  courts,  people  who  cook 
foods  on  portable  stoves,  people  who  cry  their  wares,  jugglers, 


THE  MAD  ELEPHANT- IN   THE   YELLOW   CITY       275 

story-tellers,  tinkers,  cobblers,  —  a  murmur  of  voices  in  many 
keys,  —  quack  doctors,  all  surge  through  the  restless,  babbling, 
glimmering  sea  of  the  Pekin  streets. 

Amid  the  crowds  come  the  Tartar  soldiers  with  whips.  A 
mandarin  in  state  is  approaching ;  every  one  must  make  way  for 
him.  How  gorgeous  he  looks  in  his  sedan-chair!  His  suite 
follow  him,  and  before  the  pompous  cortege  the  people  press 
together  like  a  wall. 

If  the  crowd  becomes  disorderly,  the  Tartar  soldiers  rush 
down  upon  them  with  bamboo  whips.  All  ordinary  people  are 
liable  to  get  whipped  in  China,  and  sometimes  the  innocent 
with  the  guilty. 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 
THE   WONDERFUL   TREES    OF   CHINA 

THE  blue,  sunny  air  of  China  is  a  fairy-land  of  trees,  and  an 
account  of  them  reads  like  a  fable.  There  is  found  the  marvel 
of  vegetation,  the  banyan-tree,  or  pagoda-tree  —  a  little  forest 
in  itself  that  can  shelter  a  small  army,  whose  branches  are  drawn 
down  to  the  mother  earth,  and  spring  up  trees  which  in  turn 
multiply  themselves,  until  the  arches  and  cloisters  and  tangled 
alleyways  seem  like  a  vast  monastery.  The  birds  love  the 
umbrageous  shadows,  which  become  alive  with  their  cheerful 
voices. 

There  is  the  milk-tree  and  the  varnish-tree,  the  juice  of  each 
of  which  is  used  in  gilding,  and  the  mulberry,  or  silk-tree,  which 
yields  the  means  of  a  vast  wealth. 

One  of  the  most  curious  of  the  vegetable  productions  of  the 
country  is  the  tallow-tree,  which  produces  the  fat  from  which 
candles  are  made.  The  camphor-laurel,  which  is  as  the  oak  in 
size,  is  almost  as  wonderful.  The  camphor  is  found  in  the 
trunk,  as  in  a  treasure-chest. 

The  sycamore  produces  the  finest  paper,  and  the  indigo  plant 
the  finest  dyes. 

The  mandarin  orange  is  the  delight  of  China.  It  is  said  that 
it  is  worth  a  voyage  to  China  to  eat  one  of  these  oranges.  It  is 
now  being  cultivated  in  Florida,  so  one  may  not  have  to  go  so 
far  to  obtain  it.  The  dwarf  oranges  of  China  will  grow  finely 
in  Florida  under  protection. 

The  orange-trees  of  China  surpass  those  of  Europe  or  Asia ; 
the  plantations  of  these  trees  are  little  paradises,  in  which  the 

276 


THE    WONDERFUL    TREES    OF   CHINA  277 

odors  of  glistening  green  leaves  and  white  flowers  are   over- 
powering. 

The  beautiful  trees  of  China  have  one  common  enemy,  the 
locust.  On  some  sunny  day  a  cloud  will  arise  from  the  earth 
and  cast  a  shadow.  No  one  seems  to  know  where  it  was 
formed,  but  it  rises  and  falls  in  showers  of  vegetable  destroyers. 
These  locusts  devour  whole  provinces;  everything  green  falls 
before  them.  When  they  have  devoured  all,  they  die,  and  then 
comes  the  pestilence.  The  emperor  goes  into  the  Temple  of 
Heaven  and  supplicates  the  gods  for  his  dying  people. 

The  living  ornaments  of  the  pleasure-grounds  and  gardens  are 
the  dwarfed  trees.  These  China  gardens  are  imitated  in  other 
lands,  but,  like  kites  and  fireworks  and  porcelain  wares,  they 
find  their  perfection  in  China.  The  Chinese  delight  in  grotesque 
and  fantastic  vegetation. 

How  is  this  distorting  done  ?  The  dwarf  trees  are  produced 
by  covering  the  branches  of  a  great  tree  with  mould  and  matting, 
and  causing  the  fibres  of  the  tree  to  shoot  into  the  mould.  They 
are  then  set  into  the  earth. 

The  trees  are  made  to  represent  curious  forms,  as  of  living 
animals,  by  imprisoning  branches  in  bamboo,  and  thus  causing 
them  to  grow  as  desired.  New  forms  of  flowers  are  thus 
produced,  and  new  colors,  as  japonicas  of  mazarine  blue. 

The  hand-birds  and  cool  shadows  of  trees  are  among  the 
charms  of  China.  The  Chinese  carry  their  pet  birds  with  them 
attached  by  a  silken  cord.  The  bird  may  fly  to  the  shoulder  or 
to  the  head  of  his  keeper,  but  when  he  mounts  into  the  air  he 
finds  himself  arrested  by  the  silken  cord,  and  struggles  upward 
in  vain. 

An  old  garden  in  China,  with  its  fantastic  vegetation  and 
grotesque  images,  seems  like  a  haunted  place. 

Ah  Hue  continued  his  Buddhist  stories  as  before,  as  he  had 
occasion  for  moral  lessons. 


278  TRAVELLER   TALES   OF  CHINA 


THE   ROYAL   ELEPHANT  — A   JATAKA   STORY 

THERE  was  a  certain  king  who  had  an  elephant  of  great  size, 
but  of  gentle  disposition.  There  was  such  a  look  of  mildness 
and  good  will  in  his  face  that  they  called  him  the  Girl-faced 
Elephant.  He  was  the  delight  of  the  royal  stables,  and  people 
liked  to  feed  him,  to  play  with  his  trunk,  and  to  caress  him  like 
a  pet. 

Peasant  people  came  to  visit  him,  fakirs,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, and  the  sun  shone  into  his  stalls,  and  the  world  went 
well. 

There  was  a  band  of  bandits  who  roamed  over  the  forests 
and  deserts  near  to  the  royal  stables.  They  wished  to  have  a 
secret  place  to  consult  together,  and  the  leader  said : 

"  Let  us  meet  nights  and  make  our  plans  in  the  saddle-rooms 
b^pk  of  the  sacred  stall  where  the  royal  elephant  is  kept.  No 
one  goes  there  in  the  early  part  of  the  night,  and  the  place  is 
near  the  treasure-houses." 

So  they  met  night  after  night  in  the  saddle-room  of  the  royal 
stable,  and  the  elephant  listened  to  their  plans. 

He  heard  the  savage  tones  of  their  voices,  their  oaths,  and 
fierce  resolutions,  their  plans  of  cunning,  and  his  own  disposition 
began  to  change.  He  caught  the  suggestion,  and  it  grew  in 
him,  for  when  the  robbers  stole  away,  they  left  a  spirit  of  evil 
influence  in  the  air,  in  the  timber  in  the  room.  For  rooms,  the 
legends  say,  are  infected  by  bad  people,  and  long  retain  the 
influence  of  evil  suggestion. 

The  elephant  said : 

"  My  disposition  is  changing.  Why  should  I  be  mild  and 
gentle  and  playful  ?  Why  should  I  not  be  bold  like  a  robber  ? " 

So  one  day,  when  a  school  had  come  to  see  him,  he  rushed 
out  of  his  stable,  tossed  the  poor  teacher  into  the  air,  struck 


THE   ROYAL   ELEPHANT— A   JATAKA    STORY          279 

down  the  scholars,  and  chased  a  poor  woman  on  a  crutch,  and 
caused  her  to  fall  down  in  a  fit. 

His  keepers  could  not  come  near  him  to  saddle  him. 

"  He  has  become  a  rogue  elephant,"  said  they,  "  and  we 
cannot  control  him,  because  he  is  so  large.  To  let  him  roam  at 
large  is  to  endanger  the  lives  of  the  people.  What  is  to  be 
done  ? " 

They  went  to  the  king. 

"  The  great  elephant,"  they  said,  "  has  become  a  rogue 
elephant ;  we  cannot  control  him ;  what  is  to  be  done  ?" 

"  But,"  said  the  king,  "  how  has  this  been  brought  about  ?  He 
was  a  gentle  beast  as  long  as  gentle  people  were  about  him. 
There  have  been  evil  people  in  the  stables,  and  they  have 
affected  him  by  their  evil  suggestions  conveyed  by  the  tones  of 
their  voices.  For  voices  are  the  bodies  of  evil  spirits,  and  these 
spirits  possess  animals  as  well  as  men." 

"  We  have  seen  no  evil  spirits  hovering  around  the  stables," 
said  the  keepers. 

t;  Watch  the  stables  at  night,"  said  the  king. 

They  watched  the  stables  and  saw  the  thieves  come  and  go, 
and  heard  their  evil  talk  and  plans,  and  saw  how  their  spirit 
affected  the  elephant  by  suggestion,  and  they  went  and  told  the 
king. 

"  How  is  he  to  be  brought  back  to  his  old  disposition  ?  "  they 
asked  the  king. 

"  I  will  give  the  room  over  to  a  brotherhood  of  monks  for 
their  evening  meditations,"  said  the  king.  "  Go ;  have  the 
room  fitted  up  for  that  purpose.  They  will  fill  the  air  with 
good  influences,  and  leave  a  gentle  spirit  of  good  will  in  the 
walls  of  the  stables,  and  the  elephant's  disposition  will 
change." 

The  elephant  listened  to  the"  tones  of  the  monks,  and  he 
caught  the  spirit  of  gentleness  and  good  will  again,  and  he 


280  TRAVELLER    TALES    OF  CHINA 

became  the  same  favorite  as  of  old  as  long  as  the  monks  caused 
their  own  spirit  to  haunt  the  stables. 
And  the  master  of  the  monks  said : 

"  By  listening  to  robbers'  talk 
The  elephant  went  out  to  kill ; 
By  listening  to  the  monks'  sweet  tones 
He  found  the  goodness  he  had  lost." 

For  the  spirit  of  a  man  haunts  the  walls  and  wood  of  a 
building  in  which  it  has  dwelt,  and  leaves  suggestions. 

Mrs.  Barnard,  who  had  studied  the  benevolent  movements  in 
the  large  cities  along  the  journey  eastward,  here  gave  herself  to 
the  missionary  problem.  As  she  saw  the  slaughters  that  had 
been  wrought  on  innocent  people,  —  the  world's  best  heart  and 
life,  —  she  would  come  home  with  streaming  eyes. 

Let  us  present  to  you  a  story  of  these  dark  days.  It  was 
published  in  the  Easter  number  of  the  Boston  Congregationalist 
in  1901,  and  was  furnished  that  paper  by  the  wife  of  a  Chinese 
convert.  It  has  the  eloquence  of  simplicity.  It  is  here  used 
by  permission. 


HOW  A  CHRISTIAN  CHINESE  FAMILY  KEPT  THE 
FAITH  — THE  THRILLING  STORY  OF  ESCAPE 
FROM  THE  BOXERS,  BY  A  PARTICIPANT  IN 
THE  EVENTS 

THE  Boxers  were  coming.  We  were  not  afraid,  though  we  felt 
anxious  on  account  of  our  four  children.  If  we  should  be  killed 
and  they  left,  who  would  care  for  them  ?  June  13th,  I  was 
alone  in  the  house  with  the  children.  All  day  the  neighbors  had 
been  talking  of  the  terrible  things  that  were  to  happen  to  the 
Christians.  I  heard  of  the  burning  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 


HOW  A    CHRISTIAN  FAMILY  KEPT    THE   FAITH      281 

Mission  and  the  London  Mission  —  heard  the  shouting  on  the 
street  of  "  kill,  kill,  kill."  About  eight  o'clock  I  could  see 
the  flames  of  the  American  Board  chapel  and  hear  the  noise 
made  by  the  multitude  gathered  about  the  place.  My  husband 
did  not  come,  and  I  thought  he  had  been  killed.  I  took  the 
children  up-stairs,  and  then  sat  down  and  waited.  They  were 
crying  for  their  father.  While  trying  to  comfort  them,  a  friend 
came  quietly  up-stairs  and  told  me  not  to  make  any  noise,  but  to 
come  out  on  the  street,  where  my  husband  was  waiting  for  me. 
My  little  two-year-old  girl  was  asleep,  and  I  thought  I  would 
first  go  and  see  what  was  wanted,  and  then  come  back  for  her. 

We  went  out  in  the  street,  and  there  in  a  dark  corner 
was  my  husband.  His  first  words  were :  "  Where  is  our 
precious  baby,  can  it  be  you  have  left  her  ? "  I  said  no,  I 
wanted  to  see  him  first,  and  then  if  we  were  going  to  try  to 
escape  I  would  go  back  for  her.  The  young  man  who  had 
called  me  out  said :  "  You  must  not  one  of  you  go  back  into 
that  court  —  I  will  get  the  baby.  You  stay  here  in  this  corner 
—  but  don't  speak  —  if  the  people  in  the  court  know  you  are 
trying  to  get  away,  they  will  call  out."  So  he  went  in,  got  the 
baby,  and  left  the  lamp  burning  so  they  would  think  we  were 
still  there. 

We  made  our  way  along  in  the  dark  to  a  near  court  where  a 
Christian  family  were  living.  From  this  court  Mr.  Wau  climbed 
to  the  top  of  a  temple  belonging  to  a  rich  man  living  in  a  court 
at  the  front.  I  stood  below,  and  he  whispered  down  to  me  what 
he  saw  and  heard.  We  heard  the  church  bell  at  the  American 
Board  chapel  fall,  and  a  general  shouting  of  voices.  Afterward 
a  man  went  by,  calling  out  if  there  are  any  followers  of  the 
foreign  devils  about,  they  had  better  escape  at  once,  as  a  house 
to  house  search  is  to  be  made  by  the  Boxers  before  midnight. 
Every  follower  will  be  killed.  From  the  temple  roof  my  hus- 
band saw  them  go  to  our  house  three  times. 


282  TRAVELLER    TALES    OF  CHIXA 

At  last  he  said,  it  is  no  use  to  think  we  can  escape  them,  but 
we  will  try.  Don't  let  the  children  make  a  bit  of  noise.  I  will 
carry  them  one  by  one  to  the  roof  here,  then  we  can  talk  and 
plan.  He  took  the  children  up,  and  one  by  one  carried  them 
along  the  wall,  then  got  on  to  the  roof.  I  told  my  little  girl  not 
to  cry,  that  papa  would  be  very  careful.  She  said,  "  Yes,"  and 
was  perfectly  still.  I  do  not  know  how  I  managed  to  climb  to 
the  top  of  that  eight-foot  wall,  to  walk  along  the  narrow  top  and 
then  crawl  up  the  roof  of  the  temple.  All  the  time  it  seemed 
as  if  I  was  helped  from  behind.  A  big  tree  overshadowed  the 
roof,  and  we  hid  under  the  branches,  watching  the  burning  of 
the  chapel  and  homes  of  the  friends  we  loved.  All  over  the  city 
were  fires,  and  the  screaming  of  the  mob  was  terrible.  It  was  a 
horrible  night.  At  last  we  climbed  into  the  tree  and  reached 
the  ground  —  bruised  and  torn.  We  hid  in  a  little  empty  room 
back  of  the  temple. 

At  last,  about  light,  one  of  the  servants  saw  us  and  told  his 
master.  We  all  six  of  us  got  down  on  our  knees  and  entreated 
them  to  hide  us  for  a  few  days,  but  they  said  no,  there  was  to 
be  a  house  to  house  search  in  the  city,  and  if  they  sheltered 
Christians  then  they  would  suffer.  I  borrowed  a  needle  and 
thread,  sewed  up  the  rents  in  our  garments ;  they  gave  the  chil- 
dren some  bread,  and  we  went  out.  My  husband  walked  ahead 
carrying  the  baby,  and  I  followed  after  with  the  other  three 
children.  Soon  we  met  a  band  of  soldiers ;  some  did  not  notice 
us;  others  said:  "Here  are  some.  Let's  kill  them."  Others 
said,  "Let  them  go;  can  you  not  see  it  is  one  family?  Let 
them  off  this  time."  Even  with  the  knives  drawn  I  did  not 
tremble. 

They  went  on,  and  we  made  our  way  first  to  the  home  of  my 
sister-in-law.  They  were  very  kind  to  us,  and  said  we  will  all 
die  together.  We  had  been  there  but  a  short  time  when  their 
landlord  came  and  said  we  must  go.  Our  relatives  entreated 


HOW  A    CHRISTIAN  FAMILY  KEPT   THE  FAITH      283 

for  us  and  with  us,  but  no,  "  go  "  was  the  word.  They  hired  a 
cart  for  us,  and  we  left  the  city  by  the  east  side  gate.  We  went 
to  a  cemetery  and  hid  there  till  dark.  We  heard  people  on  the 
road  saying  that  all  the  foreigners  had  been  killed,  and  when  we 
reached  the  quiet  spot  of  the  dead  it  seemed  as  if  our  hearts 
would  break.  With  one  voice  we  lifted  up  our  hearts  and  cried 
till  it  seemed  as  though  our  eyes  were  gone. 

After  dark  we  made  our  way  to  some  relatives  living  a  mile 
from  the  cemetery.  At  first  they  welcomed  us,  but  some  one 
came  and  told  them  the  Boxers  were  coming  for  us.  Then  they 
said  we  must  go.  My  husband  told  them  to  hide  us  in  their 
brush-pile,  and  if  the  Boxers  came  they  would  set  fire  to  it.  I 
told  them  we  were  not  afraid  of  death  ;  what  we  feared  was  that 
we  could  not  all  die  together.  At  last  they  let  us  go  into  an 
empty  room  at  the  back  of  the  yard.  The  children  went  to 
sleep  at  once.  So  did  their  father,  but  my  heart  was  so  sad  I 
could  not  sleep.  About  midnight  the  man  of  the  family  came 
and  said  we  must  get  up  and  go  on.  They  did  not  dare  have  us 
stay  any  longer. 

We  went  out  into  the  cold  and  darkness.  My  oldest  daughter 
lost  her  shoes  and  went  in  her  stocking  feet.  We  all  had  blisters 
on  our  feet,  as  we  were  not  used  to  walking.  We  went  through 
a  village  and,  though  we  did  not  talk,  and  walked  very  quietly, 
the  dogs  commenced  to  bark.  Some  one  called  out,  "  Who  goes 
there  ? "  We  said,  "  Travellers."  "  I  know  who  you  are,  you 
are  followers  of  devils,  and  are  out  scattering  medicine,"  said 
the  man  who  had  hailed  us.  He  then  called  to  his  neighbors, 
and  we  turned  off  into  the  fields  and  hurried  along.  We  went 
to  a  village  where  we  had  some  distant  relatives,  but  found  no 
open  door.  We  walked  for  some  distance  till  we  came  to  a  large 
family  cemetery.  The  keeper  was  a  kind  man  and  lived  there 
all  alone.  He  told  us  to  come  in,  and  said  he  would  do  his  best, 
but  the  owner  of  the  place  was  a  Boxer,  and  it  was  not  safe  for 


284  TRAVELLER    TALES    OF   CHINA 

Christians  to  stay.  He  got  us  some  supper.  It  was  very  poor 
and  dry.  Our  lips  were  all  cracked  from  fever  and  thirst,  and  I 
asked  him  to  give  us  some  porridge. 

We  had  a  quiet  night,  but  in  the  morning  the  keeper  said  it 
would  not  do  for  us  to  stay.  Then  my  husband  became  dis- 
couraged. He  said  the  best  and  only  thing  for  us  to  do  is  to  go 
and  give  ourselves  to  the  Boxers.  We  will  only  ask  them  to 
please  kill  the  children  first,  and  then  you  and  I  will  die 
together.  The  suffering  will  not  last  over  two  hours,  and  then 
all  sorrow  will  be  over.  I  agreed  to  this.  He  then  called  the 
three  oldest  children,  Weu  Ping,  Paul,  and  Peter,  and  said  to 
them: 

"  My  children,  your  father  would  suffer  for  you  if  he  could, 
but  he  cannot.  The  Boxers  will  ask  you  if  you  are  Christians, 
if  you  say  no  they  will  let  you  off,  if  you  say  yes,  then  they  will 
kill  you ;  but  that  only  means  suffering  for  a  little,  and  then  we 
will  be  with  Jesus."  The  children,  one  after  the  other,  said, "  I 
will  say  I  am  a  Christian,  I  love  Jesus,  I  am  not  afraid  to  die." 

It  did  not  seem  as  though  we  could  walk  any  more.  The 
keeper  said  at  last  he  would  see  if  he  could  get  the  cart  of  a 
friend.  He  went  out,  and  we  all  had  prayer  together.  After 
a  time  the  cart  came,  and  we  started  for  Pekin.  We  did  not 
meet  any  Boxers,  but  saw  them  in  the  distance.  We  went  to 
one  of  the  church-member's  homes,  only  to  find  it  in  ruins,  then 
to  a  place  we  owned,  but  had  rented.  Our  tenants  not  only 
would  not  take  us  in,  but  refused  to  pay  us  money  they  owed 
us.  We  drove  from  street  to  street.  At  last  I  saw  my  husband 
was  nearly  desperate,  and  I  whispered  to  him :  "  God  has  let  us 
come  all  this  road,  and  we  have  not  met  Boxers ;  we  must  not 
seek  death ;  perhaps  he  means  us  to  live." 

The  carter  then  got  to  talking  with  some  people,  and  learned 
that  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Mission  had  not  been  attacked,  so 
with  great  joy  we  made  our  way  across  the  city,  and  were 


A    GHII..IAK    FALI    DAY 


THE    TEA   DISTRICTS    OF  CHINA  287 

received  with  open  arms.  The  children  jumped  up  and  down  in 
the  cart  and  said :  "  It  is  almost  as  nice  as  getting  to  heaven." 
It  did  seem  so  to  us  after  the  anxious  hours.  During  the  siege 
our  dear  little  girl  died,  and  heaven  seems  very  near  to  us  now. 


THE   TEA   DISTRICTS   OF   CHINA 

MR.  BARNARD  had  gone  east  to  study  the  tea  districts  of  China, 
with  the  advantage  of  an  English-speaking  guide,  who  had 
travelled  in  his  youth  up  the  far  inland  rivers,  and  had  seen  the 
tea-gardens  of  the  interior  of  the  country.  He  and  his  family 
had  been  studying  the  Chinese  language,  and  now  they  were 
ready  for  a  visit  to  the  green  tea  fields. 

They  prepared  to  go  on  a  mandarin  boat  to  the  Oopack 
country,  from  which  is  exported  English  breakfast  tea.  They 
sailed  from  Honkow. 

It  was  a  land  of  canals,  of  hongs,  and  of  coolies. 

They  visited  a  hong  in  the  district.  It  was  situated  in  the 
midst  of  numerous  tea  plantations,  and  to  it  the  tea-pickers 
were  bringing  baskets  of  tea. 

The  plantations  were  covered  with  bushy  tea-shrubs,  some  of 
which  seemed  to  be  snowed  over  with  little  white  flowers.  It 
was  April,  at  the  first  picking  of  the  tea. 

The  plantations  were  filled  with  work-people,  gathering  the 
tea  into  bags.  The  tea  is  so  gathered,  then  assorted  or  picked 
over,  then  dried  in  the  sun,  after  being  withered  in  pans  over 
charcoal  fires. 

The  hong  was  an  immense  roof,  supported  by  airy  columns. 
Not  only  was  tea  dried  under  it,  but  tea-boxes  were  manu- 
factured there. 

The  climate  of  these  regions  was  much  like  the  Southern 
States,  and  the  soil  like  that  of  American  southern  districts. 


288  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

On  their  return  to  Honkow,  Mr.  Barnard  talked  much  with 
some  English  tea-merchants,  about  the  growing  of  teas  in  other 
countries.  Mr.  Barnard  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  might 
be  well  to  try  the  experiment  of  tea-raising  in  Florida,  in  the 
land  where  the  orange-trees  had  failed. 

Inland  China  was  full  of  orange-trees.  The  climate  was 
subject  to  cool  seasons,  and  yet  the  trees  flourished.  He 
arranged  to  have  some  of  this  hardy  stock  transported. 

He  found  that  the  United  States  government  was  interested  in 
transporting  tea-plants  for  experimental  stations  in  the  Carolinas 
and  elsewhere. 

The  boys  became  greatly  interested  in  the  conveying  of  plants 
and  fruits  to  the  experimental  stations  of  agriculture  in  America. 
They  wrote  letters  to  the  principals  of  several  agricultural  col- 
leges. In  this  way  their  education  as  would-be  importers  grew. 
They  saw  what  they  could  do  in  their  business  in  new  ways. 

There  is  a  world  of  plants,  another  of  fruits,  and  they  saw 
how  these  worlds  were  in  themselves  one. 

"  To  know  how  to  select  and  protect  crops,"  said  Charles,  "  is 
the  secret  of  success." 

u  You  are  right,"  said  Mr.  Barnard.  "  That  is  one  of  the 
things  which  we  have  come  here  to  learn.  He  who  makes  a 
Japanese  plum  grow  in  Florida  is  a  benefactor.  So  is  he  who 
transplants  the  hardy  bush  orange  from  the  hills  of  China  to 
Ocala  and  Tampa.  So  was  he  who  developed  the  grapefruit, 
and  made  a  life-giving  bowl  of  it,  as  it  were,  on  the  breakfast 
table." 

The  celestials  do  not  dwarf  large  trees,  but  enlarge  them,  so 
that  a  single  branch  to  which  the  strength  of  the  root  has  been 
forced  will  stretch  out  some  three  hundred  feet.  This  has  been 
little  followed  in  America. 

There  was  one  thing  that  revealed  to  the  boys,  as  they 
thought,  an  Ajnerican  opportunity,  the  kumquat,  or  bush 


THE    TEA    DISTRICTS   OF  CHINA  289 

oranges,  found  in  many  gardens  in  China.  They  could  be  grown 
in  Florida  and  easily  protected.  They  would  ship  easily,  and 
the  demand  for  them  in  northern  markets  would  be  greater 
than  the  supply.  Their  fruit  is  hardly  larger  than  the  English 
walnut ;  is  delicious,  like  the  citras  deliciosa,  and  makes  a 
fine  dish  for  the  table. 

The  fruits  in  the  temperate  regions  of  China  could  nearly  all 
be  cultivated  in  the  Southern  States  of  America. 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

THE    PEAKL    RIVER    AND    CANTON  —  CHINESE   JUG- 
GLERS —  CONFUCIUS 

EIGHTY  miles  up  the  Pearl  River  lies  Canton,  walled  as  it 
were  with  lifted  sails. 

The  river  is  full  of  boats  everywhere.  It  is  said  that  there 
are  some  eighty  thousand  of  them ;  many  of  these  are  floating 
houses  and  constitute  river  towns.  Beautiful  indeed  are  their 
sails  in  the  sunset.  The  waters  then  seem  to  be  as  full  of 
voices  as  of  waves. 

Coolies'  calls,  scolding  women,  stevedores  shouting  at  their 
work,  sounds  near  and  far  away,  tom-tomings,  ting-tingings, 
sunset  bells,  guns,  and  echoes  make  the  Pearl  River  like  a  great 
fair  in  the  evening  hours. 

Cantonese  guides  wait  the  traveller's  landing. 

One  enters  the  streets  of  the  "  thousand  beatitudes,"  and  if 
service  from  calico-clad  Celestials  with  bare  feet  were  wanted, 
one  would  indeed  be  blest 

Silks,  teas,  tobacco,  ramie,  porcelains,  junks,  and  curios  all  lie 
spread  out  before  the  traveller ;  he  sees  "  beckoning  boards " 
everywhere,  and  becomes  bewildered. 

If  genius  needed  genii,  here  is  a  temple  of  five  hundred  of  the 
latter,  whither  one  might  go  to  sharpen  his  wits. 

The  things  that  he  cannot  find  here  are  few ;  here  the  delica- 
tessen shops  offer  him  dried  rats  and  live  ones  in  cages.  JInv 
he  finds  Chinese  oranges,  kumquats,  loquats,  limes. 

In  a  square  he  may  enter  a  temple  called  the  Hall  of  Horrors, 
in  which  pictures  of  unfaithful  people  are  to  be  seen  in  the 

290 


CHINESE  JUGGLERS  291 

process  of  being  boiled  in  oil,  pounded  in  mortars,  quartered 
and  disjointed.  This  is  a  popular  gathering-place ;  here  beggars 
swarm,  and  all  kinds  of  deformities  are  to  be  seen. 

There  is  filth  everywhere,  under  all  the  flowing  awnings  and 
signs,  as  well  as  in  dismal  alleys. 

As  on  the  river,  the  population  seems  to  float  about  like  a  sea. 
There  are  said  to  be  some  three  million  people  here,  almost  a 
London,  quite  a  Greater  New  York. 

The  disgusting  odors  equal  the  filth.  It  is  well  the  city  lies 
beside  the  river. 

Canton  is  a  city  of  street  shows  and  jugglers ;  to  the  traveller 
of  leisure  it  is  like  a  great  circus  or  fair.  The  serious  man  of 
business  little  sees  these  things ;  the  occupied  eye  sees  only  what 
it  wishes  to  see. 

Mr.  Charles  Sirr,  in  his  great  work  on  "  China  and  the 
Chinese,"  devotes  a  chapter  to  the  extraordinary  feats  of  the 
Chinese  necromancers.  He  witnessed  the  feats  of  the  "  king 
of  jugglers."  He  thus  describes  these  Oriental  wonder- 
workings  : 

"  The  juggler,  magician,  necromancer,  or  conjurer,  —  for  we 
know  not  which  of  these  appellations  to  bestow  upon  the  in- 
dividual,—  advanced  into  the  centre  of  the  room,  accompanied 
by  a  compradore,  and  commenced  an  oration  in  Chinese,  which 
was  rendered  into  Anglo-Chinese  by  our  compradore,  who  acted 
upon  this  occasion  as  our  interpreter.  The  harangue  was  to  the 
following  effect :  '  That  he  never  before  had  exhibited  the  mys- 
teries of  his  art  to  any,  save  natives  of  China,  and  mandarins 
of  the  highest  rank ;  but,  as  our  compradore  was  his  particular 
friend,  and  had  promised  him  faithfully  that  the  Viceroy  of 
Canton  should  not  be  made  cognizant  of  his  having  exhibited 
the  wonders  of  his  peculiar  vocation  before  any  but  the  favored 
sons  of  the  Celestial  Empire,  he  would  display  such  extra- 
ordinary feats  as  would  undoubtedly  convince  us  that  he  was 


292  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF   CHINA 

no  common  professor  of  the  occult  science ;  for  as  Taou-Kwang 
was  the  greatest  potentate  in  the  whole  universe,  all  other 
emperors  and  monarchs  being  his  inferiors,  so  was  he  (the 
speaker)  the  chief  and  head  of  all  professors  of  his  art;  all 
others  of  his  brethren  or  compeers  being  as  inferior  to  him  as 
the  aforesaid  emperors  and  potentates  were  to  Taou-Kwang,  the 
Emperor  of  the  Celestial  Empire,  and  ruler  of  the  whole  world.' 
This  oratorical  display  was  delivered  with  an  amazing  show  of 
pomposity,  being  regarded  by  us  for  as  much  as  it  was  worth  ; 
and  we  fully  determined  to  keep  our  previously  formed  resolu- 
tion, of  watching  the  performer  most  narrowly  and  closely. 

"  The  compradore  now  retired,  leaving  the  emperor  of  all  the 
jugglers,  necromancers,  conjurors,  and  magicians,  standing  solus 
in  the  centre  of  the  apartment.  Our  friend  now  commenced 
operations,  by  placing  his  box  at  his  side ;  he  then  stripped  off 
his  jacket,  leaving  himself  nude  from  the  waist  upwards,  with 
the  exception  of  a  white  cloth  which  was  twisted  about  his 
loins ;  he  then  took  his  long  tail  of  plaited  hair,  and  twined  it 
around  his  head. 

"  Being  thus  prepared,  by  denuding  himself  of  his  jacket,  to 
prove  there  was  nought  concealed  in  his  sleeves,  he  opened  his 
box,  and  took  therefrom  an  ordinary  earthenware  bowl  or  basin, 
of  about  eighteen  inches  in  diameter,  closed  the  lid  of  the  box, 
leaving  it  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  and  completely  exposed  to 
our  view ;  he  then  walked  around  the  room,  basin  in  hand, 
presenting  it  successively  to  each  guest  for  inspection,  the  whole 
of  the  time  muttering  in  Chinese,  which  we  afterward  learned 
was  a  species  of  incantation.  All  assembled  were  perfectly 
satisfied  that  the  basin  was  an  ordinary  one,  and  empty. 

"  The  conjurer  now  placed  the  bowl  on  the  floor,  about  five  feet 
from  the  box,  untwisted  the  cloth  from  about  his  loins,  and 
threw  it  over  the  basin,  spreading  it  out  smoothly,  and  contin- 
uing his  mumbling  during  the  operation. 


GH1LIAKS  SACRIFICING    THE    BEAK 


CHINESE  JUGGLERS  295 

"  The  magic  cloth  was  about  a  yard  and  a  half  long  by  one 
yard  wide ;  before  three-quarters  of  a  minute  had  elapsed  the 
juggler  raised  the  cloth  from  the  basin,  exposing  the  vessel  to 
our  view,  when,  lo,  and  behold !  to  our  astonishment,  the  basin 
was  filled  with  limpid  water,  and  a  fish  of  three  or  four  inches 
in  length  was  swimming  about  in  it !  He  then  took  up  the 
bowl,  handing  it  to  each  spectator,  as  he  had  previously  done 
when  the  basin  was  empty,  and  we  satisfied  ourselves  that  there 
was  no  ocular  deception,  that  the  water  was  veritable  water,  and 
the  fish  a  living  one. 

"  How  this  was  accomplished,  we  leave  it  to  those  who  are 
learned  in  necromatic  arts  to  solve ;  but  this  is  certain,  there 
was  no  false  bottom  or  lining  to  the  vessel,  and  it  was  impos- 
sible to  have  changed  the  basin,  or  to  have  put  anything  into 
it,  as  the  performer  did  not  approach  it  from  the  time  of  placing 
it  on  the  floor  until  the  cloth  had  been  withdrawn  by  him,  and  we 
had  seen  the  limpid  water  in  it. 

"  After  we  had  sufficiently  satisfied  ourselves  by  minutely 
examining  the  contents  of  the  basin,  the  necromancer  replaced 
it  in  the  box,  taking  therefrom  a  green  porcelain  flower-pot 
filled  with  mould ;  the  pot  was  near  upon  twelve  inches  in 
height  and  eighteen  in  diameter.  Holding  the  flower-pot  in 
one  hand,  and  what  appeared  to  be  an  ordinary  seed  in  the 
other,  the  conjurer  handed  them  around  for  inspection,  after 
the  previous  fashion ;  he  then  made  a  cavity  in  the  mould, 
placing  the  seed  in  it,  covering  it  carefully  with  the  earth  ;  he 
placed  the  flower-pot  on  the  ground,  where  the  bowl  had  pre- 
viously rested,  covered  it  in  like  manner  with  the  cloth,  and 
recommenced  his  muttering,  which  occupied  about  ten  minutes ; 
he  then  withdrew  the  cloth,  and  we  beheld  a  young  and  tender 
plant  in  the  flower-pot,  about  two  inches  above  the  mould ;  this 
specimen  of  magic  vegetation  was  of  a  delicate,  bright  green 
color,  with  the  leaves  folded  about  the  stem,  one  within  the 


296  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

other,  and  apparently  a  healthy  plant,  having  all  that  peculiar 
freshness  which  is  apparent  when  a  plant  sprouts  from  its 
parent  earth  ;  but  to  what  botanical  genus  this  magical  speci- 
men appertained  we  are  not  prepared  to  determine.  This  was 
handed  around  by  the  enchanter  and  examined  by  all,  with  the 
same  feelings  and  expressions  of  surprise,  but  with  no  less  care 
and  accuracy,  than  the  water  and  the  fish  which  had  preceded. 

"  The  juggler  again  replaced  the  flower-pot  on  the  spot  which 
it  had  previously  occupied,  and  recommenced  his  incantations, 
which  continued  for  about  twenty  minutes ;  during  this  period 
we  observed  the  cloth  gradually  rising  in  a  conical  form  over 
the  spot  where  it  covered  the  flower-pot  until  it  had  risen  about 
a  foot  and  a  half.  When  the  cloth  was  again  withdrawn,  and 
to  our  increased  amazement,  we  beheld  the  tender  plant  grown 
into  a  small  shrub,  regularly  formed,  clothed  with  verdure,  and 
having  its  branches  covered  with  buds  and  leaves ;  and  again 
the  same  examination  was  resumed,  and  we  were  as  fully  con- 
vinced of  the  shrub  being  a  bona  fide  one,  and  of  the  impossibility 
of  deception,  as  we  had  been  of  the  truth  and  accuracy  of  that 
which  we  had  seen  on  the  two  former  occasions.  Replacing, 
recovering,  remuttering  were  all  severally  renewed,  and  after  the 
lapse  of  half  an  hour,  the  cloth  was  once  more  removed,  and 
need  we  say  that  the  amazement  of  the  spectators  was  consider- 
ably augmented  by  discovering  that  the  shrub  was  now  clothed 
with  blossoms  and  flowers,  in  appearance  resembling  those  of 
the  China  aster. 

" '  Most  wonderful  —  astounding  —  extraordinary  —  astonish- 
ing —  beyond  belief  —  scarcely  to  be  credited  —  surely  our  eyes 
deceive  us  —  are  we  dreaming  —  is  it  magic  —  or  what '  —  were 
some  of  the  ejaculations  which  escaped  from  those  present. 

"  We  now  came  to  the  conclusion  that  nought  more  extraor- 
dinary could  be  exhibited,  and  we  imagined  that  the  show  was 
terminated,  when  our  friend  the  magician  recalled  the  compra- 


CHINESE  JUGGLERS  297 

dore,  and  through  him  requested  us  to  resume  our  seats,  as  he 
had  something  further  to  produce,  by  which  he  intended  to  prove 
his  right  and  title  to  the  imperial  dignity  which  he  assumed 
over  his  compeers ;  at  the  same  time  he  intimated  that  our 
patience  would  be  slightly  taxed,  as  time  would  be  required  to 
bring  the  forthcoming  spectacle  to  completion ;  we  hastened 
to  comply  with  this  Tequest  by  reseating  ourselves. 

"  Again  the  casket  of  wonders,  in  the  form  of  the  aforesaid 
teak  wood  box,  was  called  into  requisition,  and  the  lid  having 
been  raised,  our  wonder-worker  took  therefrom  a  common 
earthenware  plate,  of  a  round  form,  with  blue  and  white  figures 
depicted  thereon,  and  about  two  feet  in  diameter ;  a  pound  or 
more  of  uncooked  rice  was  put  on  the  plate  and  handed  about 
as  previously  described ;  we  took  the  platter,  examining  it  more 
narrowly  than  any  of  the  former  articles,  resolved  this  time 
there  should  be  no  mistake,  for  as  the  conjurer  had  promised  that 
the  wonder  now  to  be  worked  was  to  be  more  supernatural  than 
anything  we  had  yet  witnessed,  we  resolved,  if  possible,  to  be 
very  sharp,  and  not  to  be  done  ;  we  handled  the  rice,  which 
there  could  be  no  mistake  about,  it  being  indeed  '  la  veritable ' 
(as  Jean  Maria  Farina  writes ;  by  the  way,  how  many  veritable 
Farinas  are  there  ?),  and  unboiled  also. 

"  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  during  the  whole  period, 
although  the  necromancer  could  see  the  box,  it  was  closed, 
standing  at  a  distance  from  him,  and  he  never  approached  it 
during  the  operations,  after  the  various  articles  had  been  taken 
from  it;  so  that  it  was  perfectly  impracticable  that  anything 
could  have  been  abstracted  from  the  box  after  it  had  been 
originally  closed. 

"  The  conjurer  now  put  the  plate  of  rice  in  the  centre  of 
the  room,  covering  it  with  a  cloth,  and  squatting  down  after  the 
manner  of  these  pagans  (for  be  it  known  to  the  uninitiated  that 
the  attitude  of  the  Asiatics  more  frequently  resembles  that  of 


298  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF   CHINA 

a  monkey  crouched  than  that  of  a  human  being  seated,  as  their 
nether  end  rests  upon,  or  balances  over  their  heels,  and  when  a 
Chinaman's  long  tail  is  stretched  on  the  ground,  the  resemblance 
is  nearly  perfect),  he  varied  the  performance  by  putting  his 
hand  under  the  cloth,  scrupulously  keeping  his  arms  covered  to 
the  elbows,  and  commenced  divers  manipulations,  vehemently, 
energetically,  and  loudly  muttering  his  incantations.  It  has 
just  been  suggested  to  us  by  a  mischievous  imp,  who  jogged  our 
elbow,  that  the  manipulations  in  which  the  conjurer  was  indulg- 
ing might  possibly  have  been  of  a  mesmeric  character ;  be  this 
as  it  may,  the  manipulations  continued  for  the  space  of  half  an 
hour,  our  necromancer  never  budging  from  the  spot,  or  varying 
the  elegant  attitude  which  he  had  first  assumed.  We  observed 
sundry  movements  under  the  cloth  at  divers  times,  and  in 
various  places  ;  it  appeared  to  be  raised  from  the  ground  until 
the  whole  presented  an  appearance  not  unlike  the  uneven 
surface  and  undulations  of  the  model  of  a  hilly  country,  the 
three  sides  which  were  removed  from  the  magician  resting  on 
the  floor. 

"  At  the  expiration  of  the  half-hour,  the  magician  arose  and 
removed  the  cloth,  walking  around,  and,  carefully  gathering  it 
up  at  the  four  corners,  which  being  thus  raised,  discovered  to 
our  astonished  gaze,  arranged  in  symmetrical  order,  six  dishes 
or  plates  of  various  sizes,  although  similar  to  that  which  had 
been  previously  handed  around  for  inspection ;  these  plates  were 
filled  with  sundry  cooked  edibles  peculiar  to  the  country,  and 
amongst  them  was  a  platter  full  of  boiled  rice,  but  where  the 
dish  of  unboiled  rice  had  vanished  to,  or  from  whence  came 
the  six  dishes,  or  how  they  came  there  amply  filled  with  ready- 
cooked  food,  it  passed  human  ken  to  explain ! 

"  Neither  is  it  conceivable  how  the  juggler  could  have  arranged 
these  six  dishes,  without  moving  from  one  spot,  as  those  dishes 
which  were  farthest  from  him,  when  the  cloth  was  removed,  were 


CHINESE  JUGGLERS  299 

considerably  beyond  the  reach  of  his  arm  ;  but  certes  !  it  cannot 
be  denied  that  he  could,  with  equal  facility,  arrange  the  order 
of  the  dishes,  as  he  could  have  caused  to  appear,  or  have  pro- 
duced, the  six  descriptions  of  variously  prepared  edibles,  in  as 
many  dishes,  from  one  solitary  platter  of  unboiled  rice. 

"  Again  were  exclamations  of  wonder  and  astonishment  heard 
to  issue  from  the  mouths  of  all  those  who  were  present.  Again 
did  we  conclude  that  the  spectacle  had  been  brought  to  a  close, 
but  again  were  we  requested  to  resume  our  seats,  and  again  did 
we  comply  with  the  solicitation.  The  conjurer  recovered  the 
viands  with  his  magic  cloth,  which,  to  our  visual  organ,  appeared 
to  be  nothing  more  or  less  than  two  pieces  of  calico  sewn 
together;  reseating  himself  in  his  former  elegant  attitude,  he 
recommenced  his  incantic  jabberings,  repeating  his  manipula- 
tions in  the  manner  above  described.  After  the  lapse  of  some 
time,  we  observed  the  cloth  gradually  rising,  rising,  rising,  and 
again  rising  in  the  centre,  until  it  assumed  a  form  somewhat 
conical,  the  apex  of  which  was  removed  about  two  feet  or 
upward  from  the  floor. 

"  During  the  whole  of  this  rising  or  ascending  process,  the 
manipulator  remained  without  removing  from  the  spot  where  he 
had  originally  squatted,  but  he  now  assumed  the  erect  posture 
of  the  human  form  divine,  and  again,  and  for  the  last  time,  he 
raised  the  magic  web  of  cloth,  when,  wonder  upon  wonders ! 
there  were  the  six  dishes,  which  twenty  or  thirty  minutes  pre- 
viously we  had  seen  arranged  flat  and  symmetrically  upon  the 
floor,  now  piled  one  upon  the  other,  in  regular  order,  commenc- 
ing with  the  largest  at  the  bottom,  each  dish  in  ascending  order 
being  of  diminished  size,  until  the  smallest  crowned  the  top,  the 
food  remaining  in  the  dishes,  forming  a  new  melange  or  pyramid, 
composed  of  alternate  layers  of  earthenware  and  viands. 

" '  Well,'  said  a  countryman  of  ours,  who  was  present, '  if  this 
does  not  bate  Bannagher !  and  sure  ye  know  who  he  bate,  — 


300  TRAVELLER    TALES    OF  CHINA 

wasn't  it  Child  Nick  himself ! '  Alas !  poor  —  —  !  for  shortly 
after,  Death,  the  presiding  genius  of  Hong-  kong,  claimed  him  as 
a  victim,  and  there  his  body  rests,  in  the  burial-ground  on  the 
hill,  with  the  dark  red  earth  piled  on  his  coffin,  far  from  Erin's 
green  isle,  and  those  he  loved  so  well.  *  Alas  !  poor  Yorick  !  he 
was  a  fellow  of  infinite  mirth  and  merriment.'  Ah,  well !  it  will 
not  do  to  indulge  in  these  melancholy  reminiscences ;  so  on  with 
our  task. 

"  With  breathless  astonishment,  we  gazed  upon  this  necro- 
mancer, half  believing  that  it  was  not  quite  impossible  that, 
upon  close  inspection,  we  might  discover  the  cloven  hoofs,  horns, 
tail,  and  other  peculiarities  appertaining  to  his  Satanic  Majesty ; 
true,  there  was  a  tail,  but  that  was  of  hair ;  and  being  twined 
round  his  head  it  could  not  very  conveniently  or  appropriately 
be  termed  a  dorsal  termination.  During  the  whole  period  of  the 
performance,  the  necromancer  preserved  the  most  imperturbable 
gravity,  whilst  we  unsophisticated  mortals  were  lost  in  very 
amazement  at  the  wonders  we  had  been  the  witnesses  of;  but 
he,  good  man,  treated  all  that  he  did,  seemingly,  as  if  they  had 
been  matters  of  common  daily  occurrence ;  which  possibly  they 
might*  have  been,  or  were  with  him. 

"  Amongst  our  English  exclamations  of  wonderment,  it  should 
not  be  forgotten  that  there  were  mingled,  in  due  proportion,  the 
yi-yaws  and  other  expressions  indicative  of  similar  feelings 
on  the  part  of  the  head  domestics  and  their  friends,  who  had 
crowded  round  the  doors  and  windows,  to  satisfy  their  (not  very 
unnatural)  curiosity  ;  for  we,  although  not  at  all  times  disposed 
to  be  good-natured,  on  this  occasion,  for  very  obvious  reasons, 
followed  laudably  the  course  pursued  by  a  certain  mitey 
minister,  namely,  closing  our  eyes  to  avoid  seeing  what  we 
felt  we  should  have  great  difficulty  in  remedying.  The  emperor 
of  all  the  conjurers,  and  we  must  fully  acquiesce  in  his  right  to 
assume  that  title,  now  took  his  leave  with  a  chin-chin,  meaning, 


THE  PEEFOEMANCE  OF  A    NATIVE  JUGGLER         303 

in  good  honest  English,  farewell ;  his  coolie  removing  the  teak- 
wood  box,  and  'some  of  our  own  domestics  carrying  out  the 
flowering  shrub,  in  all  its  pristine  beauty,  and  pyramid  of  viands ; 
of  the  latter  of  which  we  have  no  doubt  they  partook  in  com- 
pany with  our  friend  the  emperor,  washing  the  edibles  down  with 
sundry  cups  of  their  favorite  beverage,  sam-shoo" 

In  Smith's  "  Exploratory  Visit  to  China,"  we  read  the  following 
interesting  account  of  a  juggler,  which  we  quote,  as  being  a  more 
wonderful  performance  and  illusion  than  any  we  saw  or  have 
described. 


THE   PERFORMANCE   OF   A   NATIVE  JUGGLER 

"  THE  juggler,  after  haranguing  the  crowd  with  much  anima- 
tion, as  is  usual  with  actors,  proceeded  to  one  part  of  the  crowd, 
and  took  thence  a  child,  apparently  about  five  or  six  years  of 
age,  who,  with  struggling  reluctance,  was  led  into  the  centre 
of  the  circle.  The  man  then,  with  impassioned  gestures,  vio- 
lently threw  the  child  on  a  wooden  stool,  and  placing  him  on  his 
back,  flourished  over  him  a  large  knife ;  the  child  all  the  time 
sobbing  and  crying  as  if  from  fright.  Two  or  three  older  men 
from  the  crowd  approached  with  earnest  remonstrance  against 
the  threatened  deed  of  violence. 

"  For  a  time  he  desisted,  but  soon  after  returning  to  the  child, 
who  was  still  uttering  most  pitiable  cries,  he  placed  him  with 
his  back  upwards,  and  notwithstanding  the  violent  protests  of 
the  seniors,  he  suddenly  dashed  the  knife  into  the  back  of  the 
child's  neck,  which  it  appeared  to  enter  till  it  had  almost  divided  it 
from  the  head,  the  blood  meanwhile  flowing  copiously  from  the 
wound,  streaming  to  the  ground,  and  over  the  hands  of  the  man. 
The  man  then  arose,  leaving  the  knife  firmly  fixed  in  the  child's 


304  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

neck.  The  struggles  of  the  child  grew  more  and  more  feeble, 
and  at  last  altogether  ceased.  Copper  cash  was  now  thrown 
liberally  into  the  ring,  for  the  benefit  of  the  principal  .actors. 
They  were  collected  by  the  assistants,  all  of  them  viewing  the 
influx  of  the  coins  with  great  delight,  and  bowing  continually  to 
the  spectators,  and  reiterating  the  words,  Te  Seay,  many  thanks. 
After  a  time,  the  man  proceeded  toward  the  corpse,  pronounced 
a  few  words,  took  away  the  knife,  and  called  aloud  to  the  child ; 
soon  there  appeared  the  signs  of  returning  animation.  The  stiff- 
ness of  death  gradually  relaxed,  and  at  last  the  child  stood  up 
among  the  eager  crowd,  who  closed  around  him,  and  bountifully 
rewarded  him  with  cash.  The  performance  was  one  which 
evidently  excited  delight  in  the  bystanders,  who,  by  their  con- 
tinued shouts,  showed  their  approbation  of  the  acting." 

Mrs.  Barnard,  who  had  taken  a  great  interest  in  the  "  sand 
pens"  of  Boston,  and  visited  the  German  kinderplatz  in  towns 
on  the  way,  no  sooner  entered  China  than  she  began  to  inquire 
about  missionary  kindergartens.  She  found  them.  The  Ameri- 
can missionaries  had  seen  what  she  so  clearly  saw ;  they  had 
opened  such  schools  in  the  large  stations. 

She  visited  one  of  these  schools,  and  afterward  addressed  a 
company  of  English  and  American  teachers.  She  said  to  them : 

"  I  come  from  America  ;  I  am  travelling  as  a  pupil,  trying  to 
learn  something  wherever  I  go.  Had  I  influence  in  work  like 
yours,  I  would  put  the  Asian  missions  into  the  kindergarten 
school.  Kindergartens  would  become  churches,  colleges,  life." 

The  school  that  she  visited  abounded  with  stories.  Some  of 
these  were  as  charming  as  those  used  in  the  Froebel  schools 
of  Germany  and  Switzerland. 

The  Chinese  cities  were  full  of  poverty  and  beggars. 

The  street  scenes  of  Canton  were  full  of  picturesque  life. 
The  street  railway  had  not  yet  supplanted  the  sedan-chair  and 


THE  PERFORMANCE  OF  A  NATIVE  JUGGLER    307 

wheelbarrow.  The  show-rooms  of  the  lantern  merchant,  the 
dry-goods  shops,  the  itinerant  barber  who  shaves  his  customers 
on  the  street,  the  travelling  bread-carts,  the  kite-flyers  in  the 
fields  and  open  places,  all  hold  the  eye  of  the  visitor,  and  tempt 
him  to  use  the  camera. 

Our  tourist  visited  many  porcelain  shops,  and  made  purchases 
of  dishes  for  home  use  and  souvenirs.  Among  the  features  of 
the  ware  shops  were  earthen  jars,  which  are  much  used  in 
China  for  water  among  the  poor  people. 

Among  their  visits  at  Canton  was  one  to  a  Chinese  lady,  with 
bound  feet.  This  lady  greatly  interested  Mrs.  Barnard  and 
Lucy,  for  she  could  speak  English  imperfectly,  and  had  become 
a  member  of  a  humane  missionary  society  for  the  prevention  of 
the  binding  of  children's  feet.- 

The  missionary  influence  is  making  itself  felt  in  freeing  China 
from  the  custom  of  deforming  the  feet.  The  missionary  seems 
destined  to  set  Chinese  women  free  from  the  superstition. 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 
OPIUM  — THE   MONSTER   COVERLET 

,  CHARLES  H.  EDEN,  who  published  a  very  interesting  popular 
book  on  China,  some  twenty  years  ago,  devotes  a  part  of  a  chap- 
ter to  beggars,  the  king  of  the  beggars,  and  to  the  temptations 
that  lead  to  beggary  in  China.  In  this  interesting  chapter  he, 
in  very  careful  language,  pictures  the  weak  side  of  Chinese  life. 

He  says,  at  first  quoting  Abbe"  Hue :  "  In  the  northern 
provinces,  especially  in  the  environs  of  the  Great  Wall,  you  may 
sometimes  meet,  during  the  intense  cold  of  winter,  men  running 
about  in  a  state  of  complete  nudity,  having  been  driven  pitilessly 
from  the  gaming-houses  where  they  had  lost  their  all.  They 
rush  about  in  all  directions  like  madmen  to  try  to  save  them- 
selves from  being  frozen,  or  crouch  down  against  the  chimneys, 
which,  in  those  countries,  are  carried  along  the  walls  of  the 
houses,  on' a  level  with  the  ground. 

"  They  turn  first  one  side  toward  the  warmth,  then  the  other, 
whilst  their  gambling  companions,  far  from  trying  to  help  them, 
look  on  with  ferocious  and  malignant  hilarity.  The  horrible 
spectacle  seldom  lasts  long,  for  the  cold  soon  seizes  the  unfortu- 
nate creatures,  and  they  fall  down  and  die.  The  gamblers  then 
return  to  their  table,  and  begin  to  play  again  with  the  most  per- 
fect composure.  Such  facts  as  these  will  appear  fabulous  to 
many  persons,  but  having  resided  several  years  in  the  north  of 
China,  we  can  testify  to  their  perfect  authenticity. 

"  The  Chinese  also  have  a  game  called  tsei-mei,  which  consists 
in  guessing  the  number  of  figures  held  out  by  each  player,  and 

308 


OPIUM—  THE  MONSTER    COVERLET 


311 


much  resembles  the  Italian  morra;  the  loser  has  to  furnish  a 
cup  of  brandy.  They  also  enjoy  cock-fighting,  as  well  as  com- 
bats between  crickets  and  grasshoppers,  on  all  of  which  money 
is  staked  and  won  or  lost. 

"  The  fatal  passion  for  gambling  inherent  in  the  Chinese  is 
not  the  only  cause  of  their  misery.  Another  may  be  found  in 
their  love  of  debauchery.  The  thin  coating  of  varnish  which 


PLAYIXG    DAN  -  HO 

covers  Chinese  society  hides  a  most  profound  corruption,  a  per- 
version of  manners  and  morals  which  exceeds  all  we  have  read 
of  in  ancient  history.  Drunkenness,  as  we  understand  the  term, 
is  among  the  least  of  these  vices,  although  it  exists  to  a  con- 
siderable extent.  Centuries  ago  grape  wine  was  prohibited,  and 
all  the  vines  destroyed  by  order  of  the  reigning  emperor.  The 
Manchu  dynasty  repealed  this  edict,  and  the  vine  is  now  culti- 
vated for  the  table,  though  wine  is  not  made  from  it.  It  is, 


312  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

however,  a  matter  of  very  little  difference,  for  they  extract  both 
wine  and  brandy  from  rice  and  millet,  strong  liquors  which  pro- 
duce terrible  drunkenness. 

"  Alcoholic  drink  may  be  obtained  at  the  tea-houses  and 
restaurants,  which  are  as  numerous  as  the  public-houses  in  Eng- 
land. There  are  many  degrees  of  comfort  and  elegance  in  these 
establishments,  which,  as  with  us,  are  suited  to  the  requirements 
of  all  classes.  The  tea-houses  may  be  easily  recognized  by  a 
recess  placed  at  the  end  of  the  hall,  furnished  with  huge  kettles, 
teapots,  furnaces,  stoves,  and  cauldrons  six  feet  in  height.  Above 
the  recess  generally  stands  a  time-keeper  consisting  of  a  joss- 
stick  or  long  perfumed  match,  marked  off  at  equal  distances. 
This  slowly  smoulders,  and,  as  it  shortens,  indicates  the  hours, 
thus  literally  fulfilling  the  expression  *  to  consume  time.' 

"  In  many  places  the  tea-houses  are  in  boats,  and  the  traveller 
sees  dark  and  filthy  dens,  where  haggard  men,  lying  on  dirty 
mats,  smoke  opium,  but  more  generally  the  opium-houses  are  in 
obscure  streets  in  the  towns.  All  kinds  of  people  congregate  in 
these  wretched  places,  and  whilst  smoking  amuse  themselves  by 
looking  at  dissolving  views  of  sacred  subjects,  or  more  commonly 
of  indecent  and  disgusting  ones.  Opium  is  smoked  in  a  differ- 
ent manner  from  tobacco,  the  pipe  consisting  of  a  tube  resem- 
bling a  German  flute  in  size  and  thickness. 

"  At  one  end  of  it  is  fitted  a  bowl,  which  is  pierced  with  a 
hole  communicating  with  the  hollow  of  the  stem.  The  opium, 
which  is  in  the  form  of  a  black  paste,  is  prepared  for  smoking 
by  placing  a  little  ball  the  size  of  a  pea  on  a  fine  needle,  and 
heating  it  over  a  lamp  until  it  swells  and  acquires  a  certain  con- 
sistence. It  is  then  moulded  into  a  conical  form  and  placed  in  the 
bowl.  The  smoker,  holding  it  to  the  flame  of  a  lamp,  takes  three 
or  four  deep  inspirations,  ejecting  the  vapor  through  his  nostrils. 
These  few  puffs  exhaust  the  opium  in  the  bowl,  and  the  pipe  has 
to  be  replenished,  which  makes  the  business  very  tedious. 


OPIUM— THE  MONSTER   COVERLET  315 

"  Opium  smokers  usually  lie  on  one  side  or  the  other  when 
indulging  in  the  habit,  and  the  wealthy  have  their  pipes  replen- 
ished for  them.  The  man  who  once  gives  way  to  this  most 
pernicious  of  all  habits  is  lost.  His  eyes  become  sunken  and 
vacant,  his  hands  tremble,  his  form  betrays  the  symptoms  of 
premature  decrepitude,  and  his  intellectual  faculties  decay. 
Nothing  can  stop  him;  he  becomes  insensible  to  everything; 
neither  poverty  nor  hunger  can  stimulate  him  to  exertion,  and 
he  perishes  like  the  beasts  of  the  field.  Those  who  supply  the 
Chinese  with  this  deadly  poison  have  much  to  answer  for. 

"  It  is  easy  to  account  for  the  existence  of  a  vast  amount  of 
pauperism  amongst  a  people  such  as  the  Chinese,  and  it  is  an 
evil  of  such  gigantic  magnitude  that  the  government  is  utterly 
baffled  in  all  its  endeavors  to  cope  with  it.  In  every  town  the 
number  of  mendicants  is  enormous  ;  at  the  corners  of  the  streets 
and  in  every  public  place  are  seen  crowds  of  miserable  wretches, 
exposing  their  deformities,  their  wounds,  and  their  dislocated 
limbs  to  excite  the  commiseration  of  the  passers-by.  If  these 
relieve  them,  it  is  not  from  pity,  but  simply  to  release  them- 
selves from  further  importunity.  Numbers  of  these  wretched 
beings  perish  daily  of  starvation.  They  have  no  homes,  but 
erect  miserable  huts  outside  the  pagodas  and  other  large  build- 
ings, made  of  any  scraps  of  linen  and  matting  they  can  pick  up 
in  the  streets. 

"  The  Chinese  beggars  form  regular  companies  for  the  system- 
atic plunder  of  the  rich.  Each  member  brings  to  the  society 
some  real  or  supposed  infirmity,  and  they  understand  how  to 
make  the  most  out  of  this  large  capital  of  human  misery.  An 
acknowledged  chief,  recognized  by  the  state,  rules  over  this  army 
of  mendicants,  and  the  King  of  the  Beggars  is  held  responsible 
for  the  conduct  of  his  tattered  subjects.  At  Pekin  he  is  a  great 
power.  On  certain  fixed  days  he  is  allowed  to  despatch  his  fol- 
lowers to  solicit  alms,  or  rather  to  plunder  the  environs  of  the 


316  TRAVELLER  TALES  OF  CHINA 

capital.  It  would  require  the  pencil  of  a  Hogarth  to  picture 
this  disorderly  array  of  maimed  and  ragged  scarecrows  proudly 
marching  to  the  conquest  of  a  village.  Whilst  his  subjects  are 
intimidating  the  inhabitants  by  their  insolent  demands,  the  king 
goes  to  the  head  of  the  community  and  agrees  to  release  the 
villagers  from  the  importunity  of  his  subjects  on  the  payment  of 
a  certain  sum.  After  much  haggling,  a  ransom  is  fixed  and 
paid,  when,  at  a  signal  from  their  monarch,  the  beggars  flock  like 
so  many  birds  to  the  next  point  on  their  route.  All  sums  col- 
lected are  handed  to  the  king,  who  distributes  the  proceeds 
afterward  in  some  mysterious  manner  peculiar  to  the  fraternity 
over  which  he  holds  sway. 

"A  great  number  of  vagabonds  will  not  submit  to  even  this 
semblance  of  authority  and  discipline,  but  wander  about  on  their 
own  account,  ever  ready  to  rob  and  pillage  the  weak  and  defence- 
less, and  forming  a  constant  source  of  public  annoyance. 

"  In  the  vain  endeavor  to  get  the  upper  hand  of  this  evil,  the 
Chinese  government  has  established  granaries  and  numerous 
pawnbrokers'  shops,  the  existence  of  which,  though  of  late  date 
in  Europe,  has  been  long  known  in  China.  These  establish- 
ments, however,  can  only  help  those  who  are  in  temporary  need 
of  assistance;  the  utterly  destitute  have  never  a  rag  to  pawn, 
and  are  relieved  by  gifts  of  money,  clothing,  or  food.  There  are 
also  many  public  hospitals  for  the  relief  and  succor  of  the  most 
necessitous,  but  such  benevolent  institutions  are  far  from  suffi- 
cient to  allay  the  misery  which  pauperism  inflicts  upon  the 
empire. 

"  Yet  some  few  people  have  made  even  this  hideous  ulcer  of 
poverty  and  disease  subservient  to  their  own  ends,  and  have 
managed  to  extract  profit  from  a  quarter,  where,  to  most  men, 
such  a  feat  would  seem  impossible.  The  greed  of  gain  suggested 
to  some  shrewd  Chinese  the  idea  of  providing  sleeping-quarters 
for  these  vagabonds,  and  they  accordingly  built  a  huge  lath  and 


OPIUM— THE  MONSTER  COVERLET          317 

plaster  hall,  the  floor  of  which  was  covered  with  a  thick  layer  of 
chickens'  feathers,  from  which  it  derived  its  name  of  Ki-mao-fan, 
or  the  « House  of  the  Hens'  Feathers.'  To  this  establishment, 
at  sunset,  crowd  all  the  rogues  and  mendicants  who  can  find  no 
other  shelter,  and  on  the  payment  of  a  sapeck,  or  one-fifth  part 
of  a  farthing,  are  provided  with  lodgings  for  the  night.  There 
is  no  established  order  of  coming  and  going  in  the  Ki-mao-fan ; 
men,  women,  and  children  all  bundle  in  as  they  chance  to  arrive, 
and  each  one  makes  himself  the  best  bed  he  can  amongst  the 
feathers.  At  first  the  spirited  proprietors  used  to  furnish  each 
of  their  lodgers  with  a  covering,  but  these  disappeared  with  a 
rapidity  that  showed  plainly  some  other  method  must  be  devised 
to  kept  these  light-fingered  gentry  warm.  A  brilliant  idea 
struck  the  manager,  and  was  immediately  adopted  with  unquali- 
fied success.  A  huge  felt  rug  was  procured,  of  such  dimensions 
that  it  covered  the  whole  floor  of  the  hall.  During  the  day  tjiis 
monster  coverlet,  in  which,  I  may  mention,  are  pierced  many 
holes  for  the  heads  of  the  sleepers  to  protrude  through,  is  hoisted 
up  to  the  roof ;  but  when  the  night  comes,  and  the  building  has 
filled,  an  attendant  lowers  it  down  over  the  whole  of  the  sleepers, 
who  are  thus  protected  from  the  drip  or  rain  through  the  roof, 
or  from  draughts ;  as  to  warmth,  the  heat  from  such  numbers 
becomes  suffocating." 

At  Canton,  they  visited  the  tomb  of  Confucius. 

Confucius,  who  taught  that  we  must  read  what  we  should  be 
in  life  from  what  was  noble  in  the  life  of  our  ancestors,  was 
born  on  June  19th,  551  years  before  Christ,  in  the  age  of  Pythag- 
oras. He  studied  life  in  the  virtues  of  noble  men  who  had 
lived  and  died  so  as  to  make  the  world  better  and  happier. 
He  lived  seventy-three  years.  Babylon  was  the  world's  great 
city  at  that  time,  and  Cyrus  was  king  of  Persia. 

He  became  a  high  officer  in  the  court.  His  real  name  was 
King  Futsze.  He  led  a  good  life,  and  founded  a  school  of  phi- 


318  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

losophy  for  the  reformation  of  China,  which  country  had  become 
very  corrupt.  He  found  followers  in  the  court,  and  his  philos- 
ophy spread  over  China,  and  became  a  religion  in  Corea,  and 
grew  in  favor  after  his  death.  People  began  to  study  the  virtues 
of  their  ancestors,  and  then  to  worship  these  virtues,  and  at  last 
to  worship  their  ancestors.  Tombs  of  noble  men  became  shrines, 
and  shrines  temples. 

The  great  Chinese  interpreter  of  the  works  of  Confucius  was 
the  philosopher  Mencius. 

Our  tourists  left  the  instructive  Ah  Hue  at  Canton.  He  there 
related  the  last  of  his  favorite  Jataka  tales. 


THE    WISE   QUAIL  — A    STORY   ALL    SHOULD    HEAR 

THERE  was  once  a  Buddha  who  came  into  this  life  from 
another  in  the  form  of  a  little  quail. 

His  parents  discovered  that  he  was  no  common  bird,  and  they 
knew  not  what  would  become  of  him.  So  they  said  : 

"  We  will  not  teach  him  to  run,  we  will  not  teach  him  to  fly ; 
he  shall  not  know  the  meaning  of  feet  and  wings." 

So  they  said,  when  he  came  to  feather : 

"  Sit  on  your  nest,  little  quail.    We  will  bring  you  berries  here." 

The  little  quail  sat  upon  her  nest  and  was  fed,  and  won- 
dered at  all  the  miracles  of  wings  and  feet  (as  children  of  rich 
parents  are  likely  to  do). 

There  were  great  jungle  fires  in  those  days,  and  one  suddenly 
arose. 

"  What  shall  we  do  now  ? "  asked  the  parent  quails ;  "  our 
little  one  cannot  run  or  fly." 

"  We  must  fly  or  perish,"  said  the  hen  quail. 

"  We  must  fly  or  perish,"  said  the  other.  "  If  we  were  to 
stay  by  our  little  one,  all  three  would  perish  together." 


THE    WISE   QUAIL  321 

The  fire  rushed,  the  fire  roared.  It  encircled  the  little  quail 
on  its  nest. 

Then  the  little  Buddha  quail  saw  its  parents  fly  away,  and 
mount  above  the  smoke  and  fire,  and  it  saw  the  hares  run  away. 

"  What  shall  I  do  now  ? "  asked  the  little  quail  in  alarm,  and 
the  fire  drew  nearer,  and  it  felt  the  hot  breath. 

The  little  quail  stood  up  and  said : 

"  I  have  faith." 

The  fire  circle  around  the  little  quail  became  smaller. 

"  And  I  have  feet  and  wings  !  " 

The  little  Buddha  quail  had  found  its  feet  and  wings  through 
faith. 

"  And  I  can  run  like  a  hare,  and  mount  up  above  the  fire  like 
a  real  bird.  What  others  have  done,  I  can  do,  no  matter  what 
I  have  been  taught." 

It  ran  out  of  the  nest.     Through  faith  it  had  found  its  feet. 

"  Through  faith  I  can  fly  as  well  as  walk,"  said  the  little 
quail.  "  I  come  to  ye,  0  ye  skies,  I  will  mount  up  to  ye,  0  ye 
birds,  that  fly  over  the  smoke  and  fire.  I  come,  I  come." 

And  the  little  Buddha  quail  began  to  rise,  and  circle,  and 
soar. 

Then  it  sang : 

"  I  have  wings,  I  have  wings." 

And  the  Buddha  quail  became  the  wisest  of  birds. 

The  party  sailed  from  Canton  to  Touquin,  purposing  to  return 
to  Hong-kong. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
THE  KINDERGARTEN  IX  FOOCHOW 

FOOCHOW,  or  the  "  Happy  Region,"  lies  some  180  miles  from 
Amoy  of  the  Beautiful  Gate,  375  miles  from  the  quiet  port  of 
Shanghai,  and  450  from  busy  Canton.  It  has  some  million  or 
more  inhabitants,  including  a  vast  river  population,  —  people  who 
live  in  boats. 

Some  of  her  bridges  are  remarkable,  among  them  one  called 
the  "  Bridge  of  1,000  Ages,"  said  to  be  eight  hundred  years  old. 
Towers  rise  everywhere  in  the  rich  old  city. 

There  our  tourists  found  illustrations  of  many  of  their  the- 
ories. 

The  American  missionaries  there  have  a  hospital  for  women 
and  children,  a  school  for  women,  and  a  kindergarten. 

Opium-eaters  come  to  the  hospital  to  be  cured  of  their  habits ; 
but  hospitals,  however  great-hearted,  do  not  always  cure  this 
fearful  habit.  A  recent  report  of  the  hospital  work  contains  the 
following  story : 

"  A  patient,  whose  husband  was  an  opium  smoker,  came  to  us 
one  day  crying,  saying  she  must  go  home,  as  she  had  no  more 
money.  Then  she  explained  that  she  had  been  living  on  money 
she  earned  by  selling  cakes  in  the  street.  Her  husband  had  a 
few  days  before  changed  three  dollars  for  her,  and  had  given 
her  bad  money.  She  did  not  know  he  had  deceived  her  until, 
when  she  wanted  to  buy  rice,  one  after  another  of  her  bills  was 
rejected.  It  seems  strange  that  she  should  have  trusted  him 
when  she  knew  so  well  that  for  a  long  time  he  had  done  nothing 

322 


THE  KINDERGARTEN  IN  FOOCHOW  325 

to  help  her,  but  a  woman  in  China  who  cannot  find  help  in  her 
own  home  is  indeed  friendless,  so  such  are  loth  to  break  away 
from  their  husbands  even  when  they  are  most  unworthy.  We 
offered  to  give  this  woman  her  rice  in  the  hospital  until  she  was 
stronger,  but  she  said  she  must  go  home  and  look  after  things. 
She  is  a  Christian  woman  and  bears  her  trials  with  cheerfulness, 
but  hers  is  indeed  a  sad  life. 

"  The  products  of  the  opium  trade  cut  a  sorry  figure  as  seen 
from  the  standpoint  of  a  medical  missionary.  In  order  to 
satisfy  this  craving  a  man  will  rob  his  house  of  every  comfort, 
and  then  sell  his  wife  and  children.  It  destroys  all  sense  of 
pity  and  honor  more  completely,  if  possible,  than  the  habit 
of  strong  drink.  An  intemperate  man  will  sometimes  be  him- 
self again  and  show  some  love  for  his  family.  We  have  heard 
of  a  drunkard  who  was  reformed  by  seeing  his  wife's  tears  drop 
into  the  cup  of  water  she  gave  him  to  drink.  He  vowed  he 
would  never  drink  his  wife's  tears  again,  and  he  kept  his  word. 
But  an  opium-smoker  could  drink  his  wife's  tears  unmoved. 
When  we  see  this  misery  and  remember  how  opium  was  intro- 
duced into  China,  it  makes  us  long  for  the  time  when  nations 
will  be  rich  enough  to  enjoy  the  luxury  of  doing  right." 

There  are  kindergartens  in  Smyrna,  Caesarea,  and  in  Tokio, 
(Japan).  They  are  multiplying  in  centres  of  Western  educa- 
tion in  the  East. 

Mrs.  Barnard  and  Lucy  found  the  kindergarten  at  Foochow  a 
very  lovely  place.  It  had  an  open  court,  in  which  were  growing 
plants,  rare  flowers,  and  globes  of  goldfish.  The  posts  of  the 
room  were  colored  red ;  the  walls  were  white  and  were  hung 
with  pictures.  The  room  looked  like  an  art  gallery.  The  floor 
was  kept  as  clean  as  a  dining-table.  Everything  had  a  cheerful 
atmosphere. 

A  hall  led  from  the  main  room  to  a  garden,  called  the  Tuthill 
Garden,  which  was  the  delight  of  the  children.  Here  the 


326  TRAVELLER   TALES   OF  CHINA 

flowers  seemed  blooming  in  celestial  air.  Here  was  a  grape- 
fruit tree,  a  loquat  orange  tree,  and  a  sweet-fruit  tree.  The 
children  played  in  the  shadows  of  these  trees,  amid  flowers  and 
birds  and  under  open  skies. 

Here  were  pansies,  pinks,  marigolds,  verbenas,  sweet  peas, 
roses,  geraniums,  heliotropes,  and  jessamines,  which  the  children 
raised  and  cultivated  with  their  own  hands. 

The  pulling  up  of  weeds  was  one  of  the  early  lessons  taught  in 
this  kinderplatz.  There  is  a  somewhat  similar  school  at  Swatow. 

During  the  visit,  a  very  strange  thing  happened  in  one  of  these 
schools. 

A  little  girl  was  brought  into  the  schoolroom  to  have  her 
feet  unbound. 

She  looked  like  a  dumpling,  but  she  had  a  bright  face. 

As  Lucy  stood  among  the  teachers,  and  saw  the  wrappers 
taken  one  by  one  from  the  cramped  feet,  and  read  the  joy  of  the 
child's  heart  in  her  face,  she  said  : 

"  It  is  for  the  kindergartens  to  unbind  the  feet  of  China.  If  I 
were  a  queen,  I  would  plant  kindergartens  everywhere.  That 
would  be  a  new  missionary  world." 

The  little  Chinese  girl  toppled  down  to  the  clean  floor,  and 
tried  to  walk.  She  looked  as  though  she  were  trying  to  fly. 
"  Ah  !  oh !  ah  !  oh !  ah !  "  she  said.  Then  she  fell  down, 
laughing  and  crying. 

Mrs.  Barnard  had  studied  the  ways  of  helping  others  in  all 
the  journey,  but  nothing  gave  her  more  delight  than  these 
Chinese  schools.  She  saw  -what  this  method  of  human  help 
might  be  to  China  and  the  East. 


A    CHINESE    LADY    WITH    BOUND    FEET 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
TONQUIN 

THE  story  of  the  French  protectorate  of  Tonquin,  or  Tonking, 
is  not  without  shadows.  All  that  can  be  said  of  such  doubtful 
moral  conditions  is  that  when  a  low  order  of  civilization  opposes 
a  higher  one,  the  lower  one  in  the  end  must  yield  to  the  higher 
—  it  is  gravitation.  Tonquin  was  the  shelter  of  pirates,  of 
black  flags,  and  barbarism  on  the  sea.  By  an  old  treaty  France 
had  a  concession  of  a  strip  of  coast ;  her  ships  were  opposed 
by  the  pirates,  and  she  enforced  a  higher  order  of  civilization 
there.  It  is  claimed  against  her  that  she  used  her  power  for 
exploitation.  However  this  may  be,  France  in  Tonquin  has 
meant  a  higher  order  of  life. 

Look  upon  the  map  of  Asia.  Turn  your  eye  upon  the  China 
Sea.  Upon  one  side  of  this  eventful  water  are  the  Philippine 
Islands,  and  on  the  other  are  Tonquin  and  Cochin-China.  The 
island  of  Hainan  forms  a  part  of  the  Gulf  of  Tonquin. 
Strangely  enough,  in  the  China  Sea,  Hong-kong  stands  for 
England,  Tonquin  for  France,  and  Luzon  for  the  United 
States. 

West  of  Tonquin  is  Siam,  and  northwest  of  Siam  is  Burma. 

For  what  Canton  stands  in  the  present  condition  of  affairs 
it  would  be  hard  to  say.  We  know,  or  think  we  know,  for  what 
Manchuria  stands  in  the  future,  —  for  the  mighty  power  of 
Russian  China,  —  but.  the  port  cities  of  the  China  Sea  are 
in  a  state  of  transition. 

In  1418  there  arose  a  great  prince  in  Tonquin  called  Le-Loi. 

329 


330  TRAVELLER   TALES   OF  CHINA 

He  threw  off  the  Chinese  yoke,  founded  the  Le  dynasty,  and 
made  Hanoi  his  capital.  His  deeds  are  still  sung. 

Dynasties  rose  and  fell,  and  early  in  1600  French  missions 
were  established  in  Tonquin,  or  in  Anuam. 

In  1787  "  rights"  were  conceded  to  France  in  Tonquin,  and  in 
1838  the  French  began  to  claim  these  rights  for  trade  purposes. 
The  latter  found  the  so-called  "  thousand  isles "  infested  by 
pirates,  and  cleared  the  sea  of  the  black  flags.  France  subdued 
the  mandarins,  and  compelled  a  commercial  treaty  in  1874.  She 
extended  a  protectorate  over  Annam,  and  seized  the  citadel 
of  Hanoi.  Since  then  the  French  rule  has  prevailed  in 
Tonquin. 

Very  interesting  are  the  forest  provinces  of  Tonquin  ;  like  the 
Gran  Chaco  in  South  America  it  is  a  vast  menagerie,  an 
almost  unknown  world. 

The  Red  River  is  the  great  watercourse  of  Tonquin.  The 
country  has  an  area  of  about  sixty  thousand  miles,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  twelve  million. 

Hanoi  is  the  chief  town  in  Tonquin,  and  is,  perhaps,  the 
finest  in  all  Cochin-China.  Its  population  is  150,000  or  more. 
It  contains  the  government  palace  and  the  royal  pagoda. 
Thirty  years  ago  the  city  was  hardly  known  to  European 
commerce. 

In  the  contest  with  the  pirates,  the  Black  Flag  chief  showed 
himself  to  be  a  heroic,  or  mock  heroic,  opponent.  He 
issued  the  following  fiery  proclamation  against  the  French 
invaders.  Read  it.  The  instinct  of  liberty  is  strong  in  it ;  the 
words  scorch  and  flame. 

"  You  French  brigands  live  by  violence  in  Europe,  and  glare 
out  on  all  the  world  like  tigers,  seeking  for  a  place  to  exercise 
your  craft  and  cruelty.  Where  there  is  land  you  lick  your 
chops  for  lust  of  it;  where  there  are  riches  you  would  fain 
lay  hands  on  them.  You  send  out  teachers  of  religion  to 


A     WOMAN    OF    TONQUIN 


TONQUIN  333 

undermine  and  ruin  the  people.  You  say  you  wish  for  inter- 
national commerce,  but  you  merely  wish  to  swallow  up  the 
country. 

"  There  are  no  bounds  to  your  cruelty,  and  there  is  no  name  for 
your  wickedness.  You  trust  in  your  strength,  and  you  debauch 
our  women  and  our  youth.  Surely  this  excites  the  indignation 
of  gods  and  men,  and  is  past  the  endurance  of  heaven  or  earth. 
Now  you  seek  to  conquer  Annam,  and  behind  the  dummy  of 
international  commerce  cast  the  treaty  aside  and  befool  the 
world,  that  you  may  satisfy  your  lust  for  blood,  capture  cities, 
storm  towns,  slaughter  mandarins,  and  rob  everybody.  You  kill 
the  innocent,  and  you  bribe  in  secret.  Your  outrages  and  cruel- 
ties extend  everywhere.  Your  crimes  are  unspeakable.  Not  all 
the  water  of  the  West  River  would  wash  out  your  shame.  He 
who  issues  this  proclamation  has  received  behest  to  avenge  these 
wrongs.  He  has  taken  oath  to  exterminate  you  with  an  army 
which  bears  Ni  ('  Justice ')  on  its  banners.  His  first  desire  was 
at  once,  with  the  speed  of  a  thunderbolt,  to  descend  on  your 
rabbit-holes  and  exterminate  you  without  pity,  like  the  vermin 
you  are.  Such  would  raise  rejoicing  in  the  heart  of  man,  and 
would  be  a  symbol  of  Heaven's  vengeance.  But  Hanoi  is  an 
ancient  and  honorable  town.  It  is  filled  with  honest  and 
loyal  citizens.  Therefore  could  he  not  endure  that  the  city 
should  be  reduced  to  ruins,  and  young  and  old  be  put  to  the 
sword. 

"  Therefore  now  do  I,  Liu  Jung-Fu,  issue  proclamation.  Know 
ye,  French  robbers,  that  I  come  to  meet  you.  Rely  on  your 
strength  and  rapine,  and  lead  forth  your  herd  of  sheep  and  curs 
to  meet  my  army  of  heroes,  and  see  who  will  be  master.  Wai- 
Tak-Fu,  an  open  space,  I  have  fixed  on  as  the  field  where  I  shall 
establish  my  fame.  If  you  own  that  you  are  no  match  for  us ; 
if  you  acknowledge  that  you  carrion  Jews  are  only  fit  to  grease 
the  edge  of  our  blades ;  if  you  would  still  remain  alive,  then 


334  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

behead  your  leaders,  bring  their  heads  to  my  official  abode,  leave 
our  city,  and  return  to  your  own  foul  lairs.  Then  I,  out  of 
regard  for  the  Lord  of  Heaven,  for  humanity,  and  for  my  com- 
mission from  government  to  maintain  peace,  will  not  slaughter 
you  for  mere  personal  gratification.  But  if  you  hesitate  and 
linger  on,  hankering  for  what  you  cannot  take,  one  morning  my 
soldiers  will  arrive,  and  with  them  dire  misfortune  for  you. 
Take  heed,  and  yield  while  yet  you  may.  Be  not  as  mules,  and 
involve  yourselves  in  ruin.  Let  each  man  ponder  this  well, 
while  yet  he  may  save  himself  from  death." 

The  walls  about  Hanoi  are  interesting.  Outside  are  clothes- 
washing  places,  and  wallowing  commons  for  buffaloes. 

Hanoi  was  once  a  place  of  bamboo  houses  and  drains.  The 
French  have  changed  all  this  squalor  into  homes  with  decencies. 

The  Chinese  live  in  their  own  quarter.  They  are  traffickers, 
and  many  of  them  agents  of  the  hongs  in  China.  Little  shrines 
to  good  spirits  are  to  be  found  everywhere.  Many  of  them  are 
adorned  with  fresh  or  faded  flowers. 

The  holy  sign  of  the  ancient  royalty  is  to  be  found  in  many 
places.  It  signifies  the  union  of  spiritual  and  temporal  powers 
in  the  heaven  and  earth,  in  the  sovereign,  and  in  the  constitution 
of  man.  It  is  called  the  Soastica. 

Mr.  J.  G.  Scott,  an  oriental  traveller,  thus  pictures  a  visit  that 
he  made  to  a  Tonquin  joss-house : 

"  To  visit  these  religious  houses  one  has  to  pass  through  the  city 
wall  at  a  place  where  the  French  have  raised  a  large  brick  block- 
house, with  a  couple  of  guns  to  defend  the  northern  approaches 
to  the  town.  It  is  not  easy  to  find  one's  way  into  the  finer 
buildings,  which  are  all  situated  on  the  islands.  It  is  necessary 
to  meander  about  among  the  houses,  for  there  are  no  roads,  and 
this  causes  terrible  alarm  among  the  women  and  boys,  great 
barking  of  dogs,  and  barring  of  doors  and  windows. 

"Nevertheless,  in  the  early  days  of  1884,  when  few  French- 


TONQUIN  337 

men  ventured  outside  the  city  walls,  and  the  monks  were  not  jet 
scared  away,  the  writer  was  fortunate  enough  to  see  a  religious 
service  in  one  of  these  joss-houses.  There  was  a  large,  brick- 
paved  court  in  front,  with  a  wall  all  around,  and  a  highly  ornate 
gateway  on  the  face  opposite  the  temple.  The  temple  itself  was 
quite  open  toward  this  court,  with  simply  a  few  wooden  pillars 
to  support  the  roof.  In  the  background  was  the  altar  of  Buddha, 
who  was  represented  as  a  Chinese-looking  personage,  very  highly 
painted,  and  supported  on  either  side  by  disciples.  The  lower 
edges  of  the  altar  were  covered  with  wooden  sacrificial  vessels, 
incense  braziers,  cups  of  oil  with  wicks  in  them,  spiral  joss- 
sticks,  and  the  like. 

"  In  front  of  this  was  the  altar  for  offerings,  with  more  sacri- 
ficial utensils,  paper  boats,  piles  of  bars  of  silver  and  gold  in 
paper,  flowers,  rice,  and  fruit.  On  either  side  were  racks  of 
processional  weapons  in  pairs  on  long  poles,  —  a  griffin's  head, 
a  closed  hand,  with  a  pencil  grasped  in  it,  another  with  the  fore- 
finger extended,  a  tiger's  head,  the  hammer  of  the  gods,  swords, 
and  spears.  To  the  right  and  left,  in  what  might  be  called  the 
chancel,  were  two  niches,  with  Arahats  in  them ;  and  beneath 
these,  two  rocky-like  structures  with  frames  in  little  cavities, 
representing  what  had  the  appearance  of  scenes  on  the  Last  Day. 
On  the  left-hand  side,  the  righteous  were  admitted  into  a  kind 
of  paradise,  where  was  enthroned  a  majestic  Buddha,  with  other 
divinities  by  his  side.  On  the  right,  were  representations  of  the 
punishments  of  the  damned.  Huge  devils,  with  tails  and  talons, 
were  depicted  pitchforking  the  wicked  with  barbed  and  corkscrew 
lances  into  different  hells,  where  there  were  other  victims  hung, 
impaled,  drowned,  roasted,  stripped  of  their  flesh.  Side  by  side 
were  two  cleverly  modelled  figures  which  showed  considerable 
artistic  humor.  One  was  a  fat,  complacent  individual,  clasping 
with  podgy  hands  at  a  Falstaffian  belly ;  the  other  was  a  mere 
skeleton,  all  skin  and  bone,  the  bones  being  very  carefully  studied. 


338  TRAVELLER    TALES    OF  CHINA 

They  were  regarding  one  another  as  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus 
might  have  done. 

"  On  either  side  of  the  central  table  with  its  lighted  candles 
were  figures,  —  one  a  commonplace  good  spirit,  with  the  scanty 
chin-beard  and  mustache  common  to  the  Annamese,  and  with 
a  very  vacant  face,  intended,  no  doubt,  to  express  good-will ;  the 
other  was  unmistakably  an  evil  spirit,  and  the  carver  had  evi- 
dently devoted  much  study  to  the  subject,  with  very  remarkable 
success.  Possibly  he  had  a  bad  conscience.  The  creature  stood 
on  one  foot,  with  the  other  drawn  up  as  in  a  demoniac  dance. 
He  clasped  a  book  to  his  breast,  and  in  the  other  hand  bran- 
dished a  pencil,  as  though  he  were  a  kind  of  recording  devil. 
The  face  wore  a  ghoulish  grin,  and  had  a  remarkable  resem- 
blance to  that  of  Satan  in  the  celebrated  picture  of  the  temptation 
of  Christ  on  the  lofty  mountain. 

"  Round  about,  seated  and  kneeling,  were  some  twenty  or  thirty 
devotees,  some  near  the  bell  on  the  left,  some  near  the  gong  on 
the  right.  In  the  chancel,  if  it  may  be  so  called,  was  an  old 
monk  presiding  over  a  choir  of  a  dozen  others.  He  was  wasted 
away  to  a  mere  skeleton,  and  was  reading  the  lauds  at  the  top 
of  his  voice,  intoning  them  in  regular  Buddhist  fashion,  so  that, 
if  one  had  closed  his  eyes,  it  was  possible  to  imagine  a  Romish 
priest  chanting  the  mass.  But  it  was  impossible  to  keep  one's 
eyes  off  the  old  man. 

"  Now  and  then  he  was  measured  and  solemn,  but  far  oftener 
he  seemed  as  if  in  an  inspired  ecstasy,  stretching  out  his  hands 
and  making  uncanny  gestures  with  his  fingers  at  a  prodigious 
pace.  The  worshippers  seemed  altogether  unimpressed,  and 
talked  away  to  one  another  as  if  nothing  were  going  on,  but 
without  affecting  the  celebrant.  When  he  ceased  for  a  time, 
apparently  from  exhaustion,  the  choir  commenced  a  kind  of 
liturgy,  with  the  accompaniment  of  several  flutes  and  a  primi- 
tive kind  of  violin.  After  a  time  the  old  monk  rang  a  little 


TONQTIX    ItARUKK     TREATING    THE    EAR 


TONQUIN  341 

bell,  and  the  chorus  ceased,  to  let  him  begin  his  recitation  again. 
He  became  more  and  more  excited,  interlaced  his  fingers  ner- 
vously, cast  his  eyes  over  the  congregation,  threw  himself  on 
his  face,  and  violently  rung  the  bell. 

"  Thereupon  all  the  crowd,  who  all  this  time  had  been  indis- 
criminately talking,  joking,  laughing,  praying,  singing,  and  even 
sleeping,  prostrated  themselves  on  their  faces  a  full  minute. 
Then  apparently  all  was  beginning  over  again,  when  some  one 
noticed  the  foreigner  outside.  There  was  a  stifled  shriek. 
The  religious  scattered  in  all  directions,  the  assisting  monks 
commenced  putting  up  the  boards  which  closed  the  front  en- 
trance, and  the  old  celebrant  came  out  and,  humbly  chin-chin- 
ning, begged  that  information  might  not  be  laid  against  him  as  a 
malcontent.  A  present  of  a  dollar  reassured  him  somewhat, 
wretched  Sramana  that  he  was,  to  touch  polluting  lucre,  but  he 
could  not  be  persuaded  to  go  on  with  the  service,  and  when  next, 
two  months  later,  the  writer  passed  that  way,  the  place  was 
empty  and  half  stripped,  and  bats'  dung  defiled  the  wooden 
benches  round  the  walls  where  late  the  pious  had  wept.  Truly, 
it  was  not  creditable  to  the  French." 

Among  the  popular  diversions  of  Tonquin  is  one  seldom 
seen  in  other  countries.  It  is  called  the  dan-ho.  A  large 
bottle  is  placed  in  a  frame,  with  an  open  neck.  The 
players  throw  flexible  rods  upon  a  disk  on  the  ground  in 
such  a  way  that  they  will  bound  and  fall  into  the  open  neck 
of  the  bottle.  The  game  is  one  of  dexterity,  like  the  Australian 
boomerang. 

Education  receives  much  attention  in  French  Tonquin.  The 
superintendent  of  education  is  called  a  doc-hoc.  He  is  a  man 
of  accomplishments,  and  some  of  his  pupils  are  as  promising  in 
their  appearance  as  he  himself  is  refined  and  cultured. 

The  simplicity  of  peasant  life  in  the  agricultural  districts  of 
Tonquin  shows  that  invention  has  done  little  for  the  people. 


342  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

The  farmer  ploughs  with  one  animal  as  his  ancestors  did  two  or 
more  thousand  years  ago. 

"  Manchuria  may  mean  much,  but  I  think  that  a  kindergarten 
in  China  means  more,"  said  Mr.  Barnard,  after  seeing  life  in 
Tonquin.  "  If  I  had  my  life  before  me  I  think  I  would  be- 
come a  kindergartner  in  China." 

"  Let  me  prepare  to  become  a  kindergartner  in  China,"  said 
Lucy. 

"  And  let  me  follow  the  trade  of  an  importer,"  said  Charles. 

"  Travel  is  the  true  school  of  commerce,"  said  Mr.  Barnard. 
"  Our  journey  has  been  superficial,  but  we  have  all  learned 
something,  and  I  hope  that  we  are  all  better  prepared  for  the 
duties  of  life." 

At  Hong-kong  they  found  a  strange  mingling  of  Western  and 
oriental  life.  The  City  Hall  was  English,  but  the  streets  were 
gay  with  oriental  signs  and  streamers.  Here  all  nations  meet ; 
here  is  the  Eastern  port  of  the  world. 


A    DOC  -  HOC 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 
HOME  — THE  MYSTERY   MADE  CLEAE 

OUR  tourists,  except  Ah  Hue,  landed  at  South  Boston.  They 
had  telegraphed  their  coming  from  Liverpool. 

They  were  met  at  the  wharf  by  the  old  tea  merchant,  who  had 
told  them  the  strange  story  of  the  mystery  of  the  old  houses  on 
Rumney  Marsh,  a  year  before. 

"  Right  glad  I  am  to  see  you  all  back  again,  sound  and  well, 
and  prepared  to  take  up  life  as  never  before,  as  I  suppose,"  said 
the  old  merchant. 

They  sat  down  in  the  plain  waiting-room,  while  their  baggage 
was  being  released. 

"  Well,"  said  the  old  merchant ;  "  and  what  have  you  learned 
about  China  ? " 

"  That  we  can  grow  teas  in  the  Carolinas,"  said  Mr.  Barnard. 

"  And  hardy  oranges  in  Florida,"  said  Charles. 

"  And  kumquats  in  Florida  and  Louisiana,"  said  Louis. 

"  And  that  the  native  Christians  of  China  will  carry  on  the 
work  of  the  missionaries,"  said  Lucy,  "  and  plant  kindergartens 
there." 

"  And  that  the  curse  of  China  is  opium,"  said  Mrs.  Barnard. 
"  Opium  breeds  criminals." 

The  old  tea  merchant  rose,  and  turned  around  and  around. 

"  You  are  right,  my  good  woman,  and  I  have  a  very  strange 
thing  to  tell  you  right  here  in  the  passenger  rooms  on  the  wharf. 
Do  you  remember  my  story  of  the  hollow  bricks,  and  of  the  two 
bodies  that  were  found  in  the  mill-house  ?  " 

345 


346  TRAVELLER  TALES  OF  CHINA 

"  Yes,  yes,"  said  all. 

"  That  story  has  haunted  us,"  said  Mrs.  Barnard.  "  It 
haunted  Ah  Hue.  We  have  brought  home  much  to  tell 
you.  There  were  two  trading  Chinamen  that  came  to  America 
from  the  old  Canton  hong,  and  never  returned.  They  sailed  for 
Boston  before  the  opium  war,  in  the  days  of  the  smuggler." 

"  And  they  were  opium  collectors,"  said  the  old  tea  merchant, 
"  and  became  slaves  to  the  habit.  They  used  to  go  to  the  old 
mill-house  to  smoke  opium,  and  they  made  their  beds  by  taking 
up  boards  from  the  floor,  littering  the  hollow,  and  hiding  them- 
selves in  the  darkness. 

"  Listen !  One  spring  night  there  was  a  great  storm.  The 
waves  dashed  over  the  beach  and  sea  walls ;  they  rose  high  above 
the  marshes,  and  half-way  up  the  walls  of  the  old  mill-house. 

"  The  two  Chinamen  were  in  the  mill-house  drunk  with 
opium.  The  sea  found  them  living,  and  left  them  dead." 

"  But  what  became  of  their  gold  ? "  asked  the  boys. 

"  You  may  yet  be  able  to  find  it,  as  the  carpenters  found  the 
jade  bricks  —  somewhere  —  no  one  knows  where  —  on  Rumney 
Marsh." 

"  How  do  you  know  these  things  ?  "  asked  Charles. 

"  An  old  man  remembered  the  circumstances  of  the  dis- 
appearance of  these  men,  and  thought  that  they  came  to  some 
violent  end.  When  he  was  told  the  story  of  the  jade  boxes, 
the  mystery  was  made  clear  to  him.  Opium  is  a  crime ! " 

"  China  is  a  sleeping  giant,"  said  Mr.  Barnard. 

"  She  is  awaking ;  she  will  some  day  shake  the  world.  China 
has  gone  down  again  and  again,  but  she  has  risen  again.  China 
is  China,  and  China  of  a  new  birth  and  civilization  she  is  destined 
to  be.  We  can  teach  her  many  things.  She  can  teach  us  some 
things.  China  will  be  China  without  a  wall." 

"  Her  idol  temples  are  decaying,"  said  Mrs.  Barnard,  "  and  her 
highest  ideals  are  expanding.  Her  glorious  years  are  yet  to  come." 


CHAPTER   XXX. 
THE   INCREDIBILITY   OF   THE  BUDDHIST   LEGENDS 

WE  have  used  in  this  book  many  Buddhist  legends,  and 
we  should  add  a  word  about  the  great  religion  of  the  East. 

Buddhism  has  an  alluring  side  for  a  poetic  mind,  but  it  is 
not  true;  its  claims  are  founded  on  legends  that  are  utterly 
incredible,  legends  that  modern  science  has  shown  to  be 
impossible.  Its  leading  doctrine  that  the  soul  is  reborn  in 
other  forms  cannot  be  true. 

If  we  take  the  philosopher's  position,  that  truth  is  truth 
wherever  found,  and  that  revelation  is  the  universal  record 
of  truth,  the  poetic  legends  of  Buddha  utterly  fail.  Yet  millions 
of  human  beings  have  given  up  their  lives  to  gain  merit  in 
useless  ways.  But  the  principle  of  self-sacrifice,  even  in  super- 
stition, is  a  noble  one. 

My  reader  should  be  led  to  see  how  useless  and  untruthful 
are  the  claims  of  this  religion,  which  dominates  nearly  a  third 
of  the  world,  and  which  represents  the  largest  of  human  beliefs. 
It  may  be  said  that  the  world  church  to-day  is  Buddhism. 
It  holds  four  hundred  million  souls.  Like  its  temples,  it  is 
decaying.  Its  antagonist  is  science,  and  with  the  growth  of 
scientific  education  it  must  disappear. 

In  1866  Mr.  R.  Spence  Hardy,  an  English  orientalist,  pub- 
lished a  book  showing  how  absurd  were  the  claims  of  the  great 
oriental  religion  in  view  of  the  modern  enlightenment.  Let  us 
give  you  a  few  of  the  many  examples  which  he  cites  of  the 
impossibilities  of  the  Buddhist  legendary  teachings. 

3*9 


350  TRAVELLER  TALES  OF  CHINA 

He  notes  the  contradictions  of  the  so-called  sacred  books. 
Take  as  an  example  of  impossible  teachings  the  Buddhist 
theory  of  the  world. 

"  The  Buddhists  are  taught  that  the  universe  is  composed 
of  limitless  systems  or  worlds,  called  Chakka-wala,  or  Sakwalas. 
They  are  scattered  throughout  space,  in  sections  of  three  and 
three,  —  and  incomprehensible  as  is  their  number,  they  can  all 
be  seen  by  Buddha,  who  can  know  whatever  takes  place  in  any 
one  of  them,  if  he  turns  his  attention  toward  it,  or  wills  to 
know  it.  In  the  centre  of  each  system  there  is  a  mountain 
called  Sineru,  or  Maha  Meru.  It  is  1,680,000  miles  from 
its  base  to  its  summit,  half  of  which  mass  is  below,  and  half 
above  the  surface  of  the  ocean.  It  is  the  same  size,  or  840,000 
miles  in  length  and  breadth.  On  each  side  it  is  of  a  different 
color,  being  like  silver  toward  the  east,  and  like  a  sapphire 
toward  the  south.  But  though  its  sides  are  spoken  of,  it  is 
round,  not  square.  If  it  were  square,  like  a  house,  it  would 
be  spoken  of  as  having  a  north  wall,  or  a  south  wall.  Its  side 
means  its  aspect,  whether  north  or  south ;  and  by  its  size  is 
meant  its  diameter.  It  is  supported  on  the  three-peaked 
Trikuta  Rock,  like  a  vessel  upon  a  tripod.  If  it  were  square 
it  would  require  four  rocks  upon  which  to  stand,  instead  of 
three.  Where  these  rocks  rise  to  the  elevation  of  forty  thou- 
sand miles,  there  Maha  Meru  rests,  and  it  is  firmly  clasped  by 
them  as  by  a  pair  of  pincers.  When  it  is  said  in  the  Loka- 
pannyap-tip-prakarana  that  it  lies  in  the  ocean  only  eight  hun- 
dred thousand  miles  deep,  it  is  because  the  elevation  of  the 
rocks  is  not  included.  The  three  rocks  rest  upon  a  World  of 
Stone." 

Science  has  proved  any  such  theory  as  this  of  the  universe  as 
utterly  false.  Think  of  a  mountain  a  million  or  more  miles 
high,  and  an  ocean  eight  hundred  thousand  miles  deep  —  the 
diameter  of  the  earth  being  only  eight  thousand  miles.  These 


INCREDIBILITY   OF   THE  BUDDHIST  LEGENDS        353 

books  say  that  the  stone  on  which  the  earth  rests  is  1,200,000 
miles  thick.  They  have  volumes  given  to  dimensions  like  these. 

The  Buddhist  astronomy  is  impossible,  as  science  has  proved. 
We  are  told  in  the  books  that  the  inside  of  the  sun  is  gold 
and  the  outside  is  crystal. 

In  the  heavens  dwells  a  monster  who  swallows  the  sun  and 
moon.  He  is  thus  described : 

"  This  Rahu  is  48,000  miles  in  size ;  his  breadth  between  the 
shoulders  is  12,000  miles ;  his  thickness,  from  breast  to  back, 
is  6,000 ;  his  head  is  9,000  miles  in  size ;  his  forehead,  3,000 
miles;  from  eyebrow  to  eyebrow  is  1,500  miles;  his  nose  is 
3,000  miles  long,  and  his  mouth  3,000  miles  deep ;  the  breadth 
of  his  palm  and  of  his  foot  is  2,000  miles  ;  and  one  joint  of  his 
finger  is  500  miles  long.  When  Rahu  sees  the  shining  of  the 
sun,  he  descends  toward  the  path  in  which  it  moves,  and  there 
remaining  with  his  mouth  open,  the  sun  falls  into  it,  as  if 
into  the  Awichi  hell.  The  dewas  resident  in  the  sun  bawl 
out,  trembling  with  fear.  He  sometimes  hides  them  under  his 
jaw;  sometimes  licks  them' with  his  tongue;  and  sometimes 
moves  them  up  and  down  in  his  mouth,  like  an  animal  chewing 
its  cud.  But  he  is  not  able  to  prevent  them  from  moving 
onward.  Were  he  to  attempt  to  keep  them  in  his  mouth, 
saying,  '  I  will  kill  these  (bawling)  dewas,'  they  would  escape 
through  the  crown  of  his  head." 

The  fiflBW  in  the  books  are  thousands  of  miles  long ;  the  trees 
thousands  of  miles  high.  Of  course  all  such  statements  are  ab- 
surd. Science  has  found  no  mountain  which  the  Buddhist  books 
describe  as  fifty  times  larger  than  our  earth  is  now  known  to  be. 

Mr.  Hardy  in  his  book  thus  almost  needlessly  reasons  against 
the  great  monster  of  the  heavens,  called  Asur  Rahu. 

"  The  eclipses  of  the  sun  and  moon  are  caused,  according  to 
Buddha,  by  this  monster,  who  is  said  to  be  nearly  fifty  thousand 
miles  high.  He  sometimes  covers  them  with  his  hand,  and 


354  TRAVELLER   TALES   OF  CHINA 

sometimes  hides  them  in  his  mouth.  But  how  can  a  being, 
with  a  mouth  only  three  thousand  miles  deep,  swallow  the  sun, 
which  is  eight  hundred  thousand  miles  in  diameter,  according 
to  the  calculations  of  science.  If  the  sun  be  of  so  hot  a  nature 
as  is  represented,  why  does  not  he  bawl  out,  as  well  as  the 
dewas,  during  the  operation ;  and  as  even  a  burnt  child  shuns 
the  fire,  why  does  he  repeat  the  experiment  so  frequently,  when 
he  knows  what  must  be  the  consequence  ? 

"  As  to  the  moon,  we  are  quite  sure  that  there  must  be  some 
mistake.  In  the  maps  of  its  surface,  the  detached  masses  of 
matter  thrown  down  the  sides  of  its  mountains  bear  a  consider- 
able resemblance  to  the  mounds  of  sand,  hollow  in  the  centre, 
piled  up  and  thrown  down  with  so  much  industry  by  the  ants  in 
the  cinnamon  gardens  near  Colombo  and  other  places.  If  Ralm 
licks  the  moon  with  his  tongue,  how  is  it  that  immediately  after- 
ward its  surface  is  as  bright  as  ever,  and  not  a  fragment  in  its 
hollows  or  heaps  displaced  ?  And  how  is  it  that  scientific  men, 
and  even  the  naksaestrakarayas  of  the  island,  can  tell  to  so  exact 
a  period  as  a  second  of  time,  for  hundreds  of  years  beforehand, 
that  the  seizure  will  take  place  ?  Is  Rahu  a  living  machinery 
that  has  life  like  a  man,  and  yet  is  obliged  to  move  with  more 
regularity  than  a  clock  or  a  watch,  and  this  for  thousands  of 
years  ?  Then,  there  is  not  another  being  like  him  in  the  whole 
universe.  What  does  he  do  it  for?  Does  he  suppose  that  he 
can  stop  the  course  of  the  sun  or  the  moon  ?  If  he  could,  what 
would  be  the  benefit?  And  when  he  has  tried,  and  tried  in 
vain,  for  so  many  years,  what  a  simpleton  he  must  be  to  renew 
the  attempt !  And,  lastly,  how  is  it,  except  upon  the  principles 
of  European  science,  that  the  solar  seizure  always  takes  place  at 
the  time  of  the  dark  moon,  when  the  moon  is  between  the  earth 
and  the  sun ;  and  that  the  lunar  seizure  always  takes  place  at 
the  time  the  moon  is  full,  when  the  earth  comes  between  the 
moon  and  the  sun,  and  intercepts  his  rays  ? 


INCREDIBILITY   OF    THE   BUDDHIST  LEGENDS 


355 


"  I  am  told  that  niy  labor  here  may  be  spared,  as  there  is 
scarcely  any  one  who  will  read  these  pages  who  really  believes 
in  the  existence  of  Rahu.  But  is  not  this  a  declaration  and 


£\ 

, 


MALEFACTORS 

confession  that  Buddha  either  told  a  wilful  untruth,  or  that  he 
himself  was  deceived  ?  " 

At  the  time  of  Buddha's  birth  we  are  told  that  there  were 
sixty-three  thousand  kings,  and  that  on  his  name-day  eighty 
thousand  relatives  were  present  to  do  him  honor. 


356  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

In  regard  to  Buddha's  ancestry  we  are  told : 

"  Such  is  the  number  of  monarchs  of  the  dynasty  from  which 
Bodhisat  is  sprung.  Prom  Maha  Sammata,  the  first  king,  to 
Suddhodana,  the  father  of  Buddha,  there  were  706,787  kings, 
who  reigned  in  nineteen  different  capitals,  all  of  which  were 
known  in  the  time  of  Bhagawa ;  but  several  of  them  have  since 
become  desolate,  and  even  their  sites  forgotten,  among  which 
we  must  include  his  own  native  city,  Kapila-watthu." 

Most  of  what  Buddha  is  asserted  to  have  taught  in  regard  to 
geology,  astronomy,  and  biology  has  proved  to  be  untrue.  His 
visions  of  rebirth  can  have  no  more  value  than  his  astronomy. 

There  is  one  thing  in  Buddhism  that  represents  the  law  of 
life: 

"  I  shall  be  heir  to  all  of  the  actions  which  I  perform." 

What  China  needs  is  Swiss  kindergarten,  the  school  that  puts 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  of  Beatitudes  into  the  ideals  and 
habits  of  the  child. 


CHAPTER   XXXI. 
A  NEW  POET  OF  THE  WORLD 

LOOK  upon  the  map  again.  Note  Tien-Tsin,  the  port  of  Pekin 
on  the  river.  The  city  has  been  a  port  for  all  nations,  and  has 
nearly  or  quite  a  million  inhabitants.  But  since  the  great  up- 
rising against  foreign  residents,  it  is  not  regarded  as  secure  by 
visitors  to  China,  even  under  the  new  treaties.  Canton  is  open 
to  the  same  distrust.  Hon.g-kong  is  English.  Off  the  city  of 
Amoy,  with  its  beautiful  gate,  lies  an  island  whose  situation  is 
quite  safe,  and  whose  climate  is  a  charm,  —  a  bit  of  paradise  in 
the  boat-sprinkled  sea.  It  is  called  Kulangsu.  Amoy  is  the 
principal  city  of  the  mountain-walled  province  of  Fu  Kian,  or  Fu 
Kien,  or  Fo  Kian.  Between  Amoy  and  this  delightful  island  of 
beauty  and  bloom,  lies  the  great  island  of  Formosa.  It  is  some 
ninety  miles  from  Amoy  to  Formosa. 

Formosa  is  about  237  miles  long  and  seventy  miles  wide. 
The  island  has  between  two  and  three  million  inhabitants,  and 
is  a  part  of  the  province  of  Fu  Kian.  Here  abound  maize, 
sugar-cane,  rice,  cinnamon,  camphor,  oranges,  pineapples,  guavas, 
cocoa-nuts,  grapes,  peaches,  and  almost  every  kind  of  fruit 
known  to  the  tropical  sun. 

The  same  fruits  grow  on  bowery,  sea-cooled  Kulangsu. 

If  there  be  an  island  on  the  long  coast  where  foreigners  could 
live  in  safety  amid  enchanting  scenery,  it  would  be  this  garden 
of  the  sea. 

At  the  time  of  the  Boxer  uprising,  the  American  representa- 
tive at  Pekin  seems  to  have  seen  how  desirable  this  blooming 


360  TRAVELLER    TALES   OF  CHINA 

and  guarded  island  would  be  as  a  port  for  the  Western  powers. 
He  instituted  a  movement  to  secure  it  for  the  purpose  of  safe 
residence  for  visitors  from  the  West. 

The  foreign  ministers,  led  by  the  American  representative, 
made  an  application  to  the  authorities  of  Amoy  for  the  use  of 
this  island.  It  was  granted  in  a  hospitable  spirit,  and  the  sea 
garden  promises  to  become  the  Hong-kong  of  the  world. 

Run  your  eye  over  the  map  along  the  Tropic  of  Cancer,  and 
note  the  position  of  this  flowery  isle  in  regard  to  Japan,  the 
Philippine  Islands,  Australia,  and  the  American  coast.  Note 
where  the  Nicaragua  Canal  will  break  the  American  continent, 
and  then  let  your  eye  sail  back  again  over  the  calm  Pacific. 
What  a  world  we  shall  one  day  be,  when  the  family  of  nations 
unite  in  brotherhood  ! 

My  readers  have  followed  the  "  race  around  the  world  "  made 
by  three  boys  representing  American  newspapers.  They  have 
seen  that  one  may  go  around  the  world  by  the  Siberian  railway 
and  the  Amoor  in  sixty  days.  Such  a  trip  might  be  made  to 
advantage  in  five  months  at  a  cost  of  8500,  and  it  would  be  the 
beginning  of  an  invaluable  education.  The  time  is  coming 
when  educational  travel  will  form  an  important  part  of  the 
preparation  for  intelligent  business  life ;  when  people  will  see 
the  world,  not  at  the  end,  but  at  the  beginning  of  a  business 
career,  like  our  good  friends  from  whom  we  now  part 


THE    END. 


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